Caught in the Fray
by lilmaimas
Summary: "I am Hime," Hinata snarled, spitting out some blood, "and you will never have me." A smirk graced his lips, "We'll see about that." sasuhina, gang violence, free-running, hints of gaahina, rating may change.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I do not own the Naruto Characters

Prologue - You Found Me

My name is Hinata Hyuga. I am fifteen years old, turning sixteen soon. My family was large and powerful, and, unfortunately, I was supposed to lead the family next. This was the cause of all my pain. Because of my personality, to be shy and listen to others instead of actually vocalizing opinion, my father knew that I couldn't do this. And he hated that I was unable to do this… so he beat me for it. The worst part is, I knew what was coming, I could have stopped what happened early on somehow, or earlier at least. Now, however, it is too late and I have no one to save me, that is, no one knows how to save me from what I am becoming, from what I've seen. I suppose, though, that by now I should be used to this.

What he did to me started so long ago, and seemed harmless, but it had developed… greatly. This can all be tracked down to levels at which the beatings increased gradually. The beginning was when I was six… and mom died…

Mother had died giving birth to my sister, which left my father to take care of Hanabi, a new born, and me. Father was under a lot of stress and Hanabi wouldn't stop crying and I… wanted my mom…

_I could hear the new born baby crying in her room with my father holding her in his arms and fussing over her. I crept down the hall to see what was going on. She wouldn't stop crying and my father was beginning to panic… it was obvious by how much he was pacing around the room. I crawled on the oak wood flooring and peeked in the crack, light flitting through the doorway of the room to the hall. There my father stood walking around, with heavy footsteps in the nursery, with the baby in his arms. By the contours of his face it was easy to see he was panicking; only his panic is different from others. When he can't… control a situation…he tries to find something he can._

_Truth be told, it was purely bad timing. The baby began to quite down and he began to slow his pace. I hadn't seen the baby yet, so, naturally I wanted a look. I pressed my small hand on the door and it creaked open. I silently walked towards my father as he stood still holding the little girl. It was perfectly silent in the room, Hanabi had finally ceased her crying, and I wanted a quick look at a new baby. _

_I began tugging on my father's khaki panted leg and whispering, asking 'to s-see da widdle b-b-baby'. My father seemed not to here me so I spoke louder, again asking for the baby. He ignored me, as he had been doing for the past two days. I hadn't eaten since mom left, well, real meals, I had found some M&Ms in mom's cupboard. Anyway, my out cry had been… a little too loud. Hanabi had re-awakened with new found tears pouring down her face and screams echoing from her mouth. _

_I didn't even see it coming so I didn't flinch but, father hit me… he hit me hard. I had never been slapped before mom left so this was new and I didn't know what to do. The skin around and under my eye hurt so badly and it was wet and hot under my finger tips. I wanted to cry for my mother but, that wouldn't do anything. So I did the only thing a scared six year old could do. I ran through the house and to my room, where I hid under my bed, and cried myself to sleep._

_The next day was as if nothing happened though, and I figured it would never happen again… I was wrong… very, very, _very wrong about that. I was hit occasionally after that, sometimes worse, sometimes not as badly. I figured every kid got hit once in a while. A bruise was just a result that came with it, and it was a known fact that my mother and I bruised easily so, I thought it was okay.

The year of sixth grade was great. The curriculum was easy enough and I had friends, even a crush. Naruto Uzumaki had moved into my school district the year before and he was wonderful, but I couldn't get myself to stop blushing or stuttering long enough to get to actually speak with him. That year changed everything.

Father lost a great deal of money to another business called 'Corporation Uchiha'. My father, Hiashi Hyuga, being a very self-righteous and competitive man was practically ruined by this. So, like many times before, he couldn't control a situation. Instead, he decided to beat me. And I mean _beat_ me. I had just come home from dance late…

_Father walked out of the den and I was walking towards the staircase to go to my room. Lucky for me, my room was moved so there was more space for my father's things and Hanabi, so my room was moved to the attic. I was walking up the first flight when Hiashi came up behind me and grabbed my wrist. I gasped; he hadn't hit me in a month and a half. I was hoping he wouldn't do it again but, my hopes were crushed when he squeezed my wrist to the point that I could feel my hand separating from my forearm. I whimpered, that wasn't a good idea at all. Showing weakness encouraged the beast in him._

_He grasped my forearm with his other hand and slammed me against the plain wall. I was actually later thankful that that wall was blank, a picture frame would mean glass, glass would mean cuts, and I didn't yet know how to treat those on my own. I was actually rather fortunate… Anyway, my book-bag strap slid down my arm with a thunk, leaving behind a burn from the pressure it put on my arm. Hiashi pressed one hand to my throat and lifted me up so that I was eye-level with him. My feet dangled a meter from the ground as I stared into the eyes of my father. I would come to hate those eyes. Clear white, the color often symbolizing innocence, was the color of the eyes that haunted me, that beat me, that I had for my eyes too. The color that actually linked me to this bastard was the color of innocence. How wrong people are to create an angel with white wings… Hiashi pulled me towards him and gripped my arms again. He swung me around by my forearms and threw me down the steps… and I lost consciousness… I didn't see the rest of what happened but when I woke up, I had bruises forming on my legs and forearms. _

_The clock read nine. Hanabi was supposed to be spending the night at a friends so no one was there to pick me up… no one was there… at all. My father wasn't home so I had quickly limped up the stairs. When I reached the landing to my room I pulled down the string for my stairs and quickly ran up them. I did my best to try and put salve cream on my bruises but, I was so tired that I fell asleep almost instantly. That night I didn't eat or do my homework…_ And so began the covering up of bruises and making excuses. Luckily… heh… luckily, the beatings weren't so close together then, the massive beatings I mean. I started to slip-up in my school work after that. Which resulted in more beating and more slip-ups… and then… the worst beating of them all.

_That day… the day that altered everything… I was late…With my breath ragged and scratching at my throat, I was running up the front steps to the house, when I heard a great big crash from inside. I was coming home late because of practice and Hanabi was home alone with Hiashi… _

'_He wouldn't…' I snatched at the handle and flung the door open. I didn't see anything in the foyer. I hastily ran through the first level of the house. Past the living room, through the dinning room, and into the kitchen and then I found them… both of them… Hiashi had finally lost it. Kitchen utensils were splayed across the floor, the marble counter top was covered with plates while the ground was covered in broken glass… glass bits… shards… everywhere. Hanabi lay in the center of it all. Her face had a bruise forming and there was blood… so much blood… Hiashi stood above her. His hands were covered in grime and red… blood… Hanabi's blood. He had never _once_ touched Hanabi. He had _only_ ever gone after me. In the recent year, he had taken to drawing blood. And the one time I wasn't there…_

_I screamed. My voice rang out through the house as a desperate wail. Hiashi turned around and sneered at me. His eyes were… not the same… he had… snapped… He lunged at me. Like always. He grasped my neck and dug his fingers in. I gripped his hands and tried to pull him off. He squeezed harder around my neck and lifted my head to his face… I'll never forget what he said… 'You two are the reason I'm not happy… now DIIIE BITCH!!!' He started banging my head on the tiled floor and I immediately resigned myself to death. Then… out of the corner of my eye… I saw Hanabi's hand twitch. She was ALIVE! There was still hope for her! And I would stop this monster at all costs so the hope would form fact. _

_I clawed at him. I kicked and he snarled. He jumped away from me and I struggled to stand up. My hands scraped against the glass and my knees dragged behind in their wake. I could see my father's shadow and I snatched at the glass. He grabbed my upper arms as I grasped a chunk of glass with my bloodied hand. He threw me towards the marble counter top with aggression that he had never used before. I staggered towards the counter but braced myself for impact and was able to lessen the blow somewhat, although the glass weapon in my hand cut deep as I did so. I pushed off and spun towards him. He was glaring at me with pure malice glistening in his eyes. I hated this man, this man who tortured my very soul and belittled me because of his own faults. I was going to end this once and for all, and by any means necessary. _

_With the glass still gripped tightly in my hand I ran to him. This bastard was going to pay for what he's done. I thrust my hand towards his chest but he avoided the blow and struck my thighs with great force. I fell to my knees before Hiashi and he grasped my head by tugging on my long indigo hair. He reached behind him, in search for a weapon, and came up successfully with a knife in his hand. He smirked evilly and glanced down to my eyes. I stared, horrified, up at him as he swung the knife towards my neck. I jerked away from him quickly but not unmarred. My hair floated down around me, drifting to the war-ridden floor, the nape of my neck stung and by cheek seeped blood from a slim cut that would heal unscarred. I stood up quickly and caught him slightly unaware. I was by far more agile and fluid in my movements then he was but he still had brute force to use against me, along with fear. I charged at him and swung my fists, one still containing the glass. Blood trickled down his mid-section and his clothes were slightly shredded. His face shone shock and a tinge of horror. He obviously underestimated me._

_He stepped back but found himself hitting the cupboards. He growled at me ferociously and leaped towards me. We skid across the floor together with him grabbing at my forearms again. He pinned me easily and there was victory in his eyes even if the rest of his face didn't show it. I resisted as best I could but my plight resulted in the inevitable nothing. He started punching my face and cursing me and my sister. His anger blinded him to my other movements, which happened to be me bringing up my leg and kneeing him in the groin. He fell off of me immediately and withered on the floor in agony. I struggled to my feet and stood up straight. He still withered on the floor as I approached him silently. I quickly stomped my foot down on his shin, compressing all of my force into it as best I could. A satisfying crack and yell was heard by my ears. _

_I panted as I backed away slowly. A broken shin wouldn't stop him, just slow him down. He started to raise himself off the kitchen floor and I ran. I plundered through the house and towards the stairs. By the loud thunking noises behind I knew he was following me. I raced up the stairs and waited. I needed to come up with a plan, was my only thought. Somehow I still contained the glass in my hand. Beyond all odds it was there and imbedded into my skin. He turned the corner and began his climb up the stairs. I waited. I was ready, my plan intact and possible. His pace hastened and I braced myself, I needed to be precise in my movements or I would be dead for sure._

_He reached the landing I stood on and charged at me. I shot my hand forward as he reached me and heard a sickening sinking sound. I backed away to see the glass now lodged into his abdomen. He looked down in astonishment and wonder, and then raised his gaze to me again, registering what just happened._

_Hiashi's feet began to slip backwards as his eyes shined with fear. Hiashi fell down the steps, landing at the bottom with a gurgly thunk. I stepped cautiously towards the edge of the landing to see Hiashi's body sprawled out on the floor unnaturally and blood seeping from his hidden abdomen._

_I stared down at his body in astonishment and accomplishment mixed with horror and numbness. I fell to my knees and my surroundings slowly turned gray around the edges, and finally fell into darkness and oblivion…_

Some time later the police and an ambulance arrived. Apparently a neighbor had heard the screams and other sounds from the fight and actually called the authorities. Unfortunately… they called too late. Because, by the time the gurney reached my younger sister, Hanabi, she was already dead.

Hiashi had died instantly after falling down the stairs. I honestly wished that he had suffered more for what he did to us but, they said the break across his neck was clean. I was entered into the emergency room on a stretcher and was taken by multiple doctors. I was awoken by the shreaking siren of the ambulance, so I saw the looks on their faces as they removed my clothing in the hospital and saw all the damage. A man actually gasped at multiple scars he saw across my back, and a woman hissed as if she were in pain as she slowly removed the pieces of glass from my legs and arms.

I was kept in the hospital for a month. The only good thing was I didn't have any homework to miss because it was the summer; the summer between seventh and eighth grade to be exact. A week after the incident, I was questioned by the police. As soon as they knew my name, I told them everything, starting from the very beginning. They declared the event self-defense and that I was clearly within my rights. Besides, the state didn't want to represent a dead man who had been beating me for the past… six years. It was decided, as a mercy towards me, that there would be no trial. I didn't talk for a while after that.

I was entered into social services as soon as possible, that is, as soon as they determined that I was stable. I was supposed to be sent to an orphanage and receive routine check-ups by local nurses, but I was adopted almost immediately after being released from the hospital. I spent only two nights in the orphanage, enough to last a life time, and was adopted on the third day.

My rescuer, an occasional teacher for the children there, was Ms. Kurenai Yuuhi. The moment she saw me she took my hand and immediately asked who my worker was. I went home with her and slept in my own room that night. Unfortunately for her, she had absolutely no clue of my past, or the nightmares that plaque my sleep. When I finally began to trust her and she actually saw most of the scars from that day, I told her what happened. The entire time I kept my face as emotionless as possible, while she silently cried. She embraced me warmly for a long time as she whispered the whole time 'I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry…', which possibly confused me the most. It wasn't her fault. She didn't even know me.

That night, as I pretended to sleep, I could hear Kurenai calling people: checking on me in-between calls. We never spoke of it again after that… probably for the best… I don't think she could handle much more.

Since the… incident, I always wear baggy, conservative clothes. Only so I can hide what lies beneath them. I haven't been myself since then, I know it. It's with good reason though, I think. Since moving in with Kurenai, I have met my cousin Neji. Whom I actually had no idea existed. He is now living with Kurenai and me. Apparently after his parents died he was supposed to be entered into the system but never was; an oddity that I find myself both irritated and grateful for.

I have also been immersed into a different social world. My friends from before went to another school, and seeing as I continued my education at another we didn't communicate, at all, ever again. Now, seeing as I am a teenager and somehow changed, I have found myself forged into what I am now. Whether it was for the better or worse of me, I suppose I will never know… But now I get to do, really, whatever I please. And it's all thanks to Gaara, my friend, that I am as strong as I am now. Now I can protect myself and those I love, yet, it seems it was… too late… much… too late…

- - - - -

Author's Note:

HEY!!! Okay, so I'm kind of really super excited about what I'm gonna do with this fanfic. SO, about reviews. Okay, I'll take flames, as long as they give reason. Random and useless yelling is just boring and, well, useless. Also, depending on what I get, I'll update the next chapter as soon as possible and all that. Also, I've finished the first chapter but I still need to look it over, turns out that its over 5,000 words… is that okay? Cause I could split it up as part 1 and 2. I'm just not sure. I kind of tend to use a lot of words and events for each chapter… anyway. I hope you didn't bleed from your eyes by reading this. Also this will (eventually) be a Sasuhina, somehow. AND, it was really hard to write the messing up Hinata and all this, HOWEVER, it will make sense and end up being the reason why she _awesome_. So, although its likely no one read this note cause I know I wouldn't, THANK YOU!!!

And, guess which band I based the name off of. If you get it right, you get imaginary cookies!!! With ICE CREAM AND FUDGE!!! (you don't really have to I just wanted to know if anyone got it)

AGAIN SORRY!!! And THANKS. I'll update as soon as I can, I want to aim for every other week or better, seeing as I'll have time.


	2. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own the Naruto Characters

Ch. 1 - Over My Head

"'_Central City High School'…_more like_ Gang Central_." Hinata muttered as she stood at the entrance of her new school, she couldn't be more right. Central City High School, or C.C., was the school with the most, if not all, the gangs of Konoha City. Gangs like _Akatsuki_, _Hebi,_ and _Kyuubi _go here and now, apparently, so does _Shukaku_. Hinata wisely mused how this would most likely bring about trouble seeing as how _Shukaku_ has recently been claiming more territory, most likely thanks to their newly active weapon, _Hime_, whose identity is still unknown. Lucky them.

Hinata slowly trudged her way towards the shiny glass doors to the school. She didn't exactly want to be here. There are people here she doesn't wish to encounter again and some of them, ever. But, her last school, and like so many before it, kicked her out. For the same reason too, violence. Ever since her… incident, violence has been a key part of her life. As have baggy boy clothes and short skater boy-ish hair. All of it stemming from her incident, and trying to hide her scars, and the weakness they caused her.

Trying to forget about her past, Hinata hastily grasped the handle and swung the door open. She had expected the beige walls and green lockers of Central, bustling with fellow, well other, teenagers, gossiping, running, arguing, and plotting with their friends. What she actually saw was very different, complete and utter emptiness was in the hallway. Not a person in sight.

She began her trek through the halls as she pondered this conundrum, why was no one in the hallways of the largest school in the county. She searched around the usual congregation area for high school students, to find some sort of answer, and found one. A clock off to the side on the wall above the lockers gave her an answer. The time on the clock was 8:16. The beginning of first hour was, for this school… at 7:45.

"SHIT!!! I'M LATE!!!"

And she ran down the hallway, her booted feet slapping against the evergreen tiles the entire way, trying to hold onto her flailing backpack.

- - - - -

Hinata heaved in breaths as she stood, grasping the wall for support, in front of the school's office. Usually her adoptive mother, Kurenai Yuhi, would go into the school with her and help take care of this sort of thing. This time, however, Hinata wanted to take care of it herself. Kurenai currently works at this school as a sort of Guidance Counselor. Hinata, already knowing the basic layout of the school, had a decent idea of where everything was located and all that. She also knew if she showed up at school with a staff member, she would never hear the end of it. There was no way she wanted to receive special treatment, from bullies in particular. So, her obvious decision, wing it all alone.

Slowly regaining her breath, Hinata began to worry about how she was going to do this. She wasn't much of a people person so talking was difficult and because of her situation it was best to let people think she was a guy. So, talking to Principal Tsunade would present itself as a difficult feat.

"Crap" she breathed aloud. Then, mustering up the guts she still had, she sucked in some air, puffed out her chest, and swung the heavy green door wide open.

Again she huffed, her eyes wandering the room, searching for Principal Tsunade's assistant, Ms. Shizune.

"Oh, can I help you?" a woman called from a desk located off to the side in the seating area that was different shades of white and green. The woman was small with a round face and kind eyes that had deep black hair fringing her face. The woman smiled kindly and gestured for Hinata to come closer.

"U-um, I-I'm new here, and I-I am su-sup-posed to see Ts-Tsunade." Hinata mumbled, her face shading pink in downright nervousness.

"Oh, you must be Hinata Hyuuga, nice to meet you," she said, smiling up from her desk at Hinata, "If you walk through those doors," she continued, pointing at a set of green double doors opposite her desk and adjacent to the door Hinata had previously entered, "you can begin your meeting with Tsunade. But, I'd be careful if I were you, she isn't a very happy person in the morning."

Hinata nodded, her body shaking slightly, and walked towards Tsunade's office, tripping all the way. She knocked almost silently but was ordered to enter by a gruff voice from beyond the doors. Hesitantly, Hinata poked her head in to quickly view her surroundings. This, however, ended quickly with a curt "Hurry up" from the back of a chair behind the desk in the room.

Hinata moved towards the wooden black structure and sat down before it in a black leather chair. In a quick fluid motion, the chair behind the desk swiveled back towards Hinata to reveal a blonde woman. The woman appeared commanding and powerful, with her stern golden brown eyes and severe mouth. Her hair style, two tied up pieces of hair on either shoulder that was similar to a small child's, was questionable. However, she was very intimidating, and that didn't include her well endowed chest. Hinata couldn't help but stare. This lady was supposed to be her principal. Oh. Dear. GOD. Hinata found it difficult to keep a straight face, how could anyone take this woman seriously? She looked like a small angry child that reached puberty _way_ too early. When she spoke again, however, it was obvious why people listened to her. She was scary.

"Are you Hinata Hyuuga?" she demanded more than asked. Hinata replied meekly with a nod and "Yes". "Well then," Tsunade continued, "these are yours," she said, grasping some papers on her desk. She handed them over to Hinata, "You'll find your schedule on the pink sheet, with your locker number and combination there as well." Tsunade said, shuffling some papers and folders around on her desk. "The other papers are for your parent and/or Guardian to signature."

Hinata nodded in understanding and stood from her chair. "Be seated." Tsunade commanded. Hinata looked at Tsunade in disbelief but complied, if rather reluctantly. "I noticed in your transcripts that you have been transferred multiple times for the same reason," Tsunade began, pressing her fingers together in a meticulous manner, as she gazed thoughtfully at her student, "Let me tell you that this will be your _last_ destination. Kids at my school don't get expelled for something like this because these sorts of things take care of themselves." Tsunade gave Hinata a meaningful look.

'_In other words,'_ Hinata thought, '_don't mess with people here because you _will_ die.'_ Hinata just sighed, she didn't want to hear about how kids were punished here by the teachers and taken care of because, honestly, she didn't care. However, she knew when to submit to authority from experience. "Un-understood, Ms. Tsunade," Hinata mumbled as she stood from her seat and walked towards the door. Almost inaudibly, she muttered, "You don't have to worry about _me_, it's the other guys."

After quickly asking Ms. Shizune what hour it was, Hinata burst through the office's door and back into the hallway. Relief slowly spread through her body, she couldn't stand being in School Offices. They were simply places of upset and unspeakable evil. Hinata gripped the papers in her hand as her breathing started to settled

With one last gulp of sweet air, Hinata checked out her schedule. According to her schedule, her next class, having been told as she left the office that first hour was just ending, would be Health with Jiraiya. Hinata checked the clock in the hall and saw that she still had about ten minutes, so she decided to wander around in search for her locker.

She passed through hallways for about five minutes when she finally found her locker. Hinata read her combination on her pink sheet and tried it a couple of times. When it finally opened, she emptied the contents of her backpack into her dark green locker. Then, she quickly grabbed her notebook, the Health book, and workbook she had been given before school by Kurenai, and a pencil and pen from her pencil case, stuffing them into her pant pocket. Having been told before hand about the school's policy on book bags, none to be carried around during school do to fear of weapon concealment, so, she shoved the gray abomination into her locker.

Hissing between her teeth, Hinata stood and slammed her locker's door, letting it loudly echo throughout the hallway, suddenly drowned by the sound of the bell declaring the end of first hour. Instantly, students streamed out of their classrooms, forming a mass of people that moved in violent aggressive manners. Fearing injury, Hinata stayed close to the lockers.

- - - - -

Long after the late bell Hinata arrived in front of her second hour, rather worse for wear, having been tossed around the hall. Trying to avoid receiving attention, she opened the door as silently as possible, until it loudly creaked and every head in the classroom turned towards her.

Instantly her face turned a dull red. Some heads turned away and back towards the teacher, having already determined her as another one of _them. Them_ being the poser gang kids. However, to her this went unnoticed.

"Come to finally join us now have you?"

Hinata turned her head to see the teacher, with his white spiky hair all over the place, addressing her in front of the entire class. Not wanting too much attention, she just nodded her head and walked into the room, heading for the back row of seats where one was vacant.

Again, she was halted by the teacher calling attention to her. "Are you going to introduce yourself or should I?" yelled the man who she presumed to be Jiraiya, the Health teacher. She just ignored him and continued to the vacant seat and plopped herself down in a huff while the teacher explained.

"Well, class, this is Hinata. He is a new student here; apparently his last school didn't go so well. So, all of you try to give him a nice warm welcome." he ordered as he waved around a piece of paper, trying to sound threatening. It wasn't working very well. Hinata just rolled her eyes and looked up at the board, knowing very well that the students here would ignore her for a while, unless something happened.

Hinata flipped open her blue notebook and started taking the notes which were already on the board. The lesson continued for about another twenty minutes of Jiraiya lecturing the class on how to eat right and exercise, especially girls. Hinata couldn't believe how sexist the teacher was. The man was a pig. She couldn't help but be relieved that he thought her to be a boy. Surely Jiraiya would leave her be and just flirt and annoy every other girl in the class.

Waiting for the sweet relief of the bell ringing, she hadn't noticed that the lesson had ended and a girl was at her desk. "So, your name is Hinata, right?" asked a girl with dark brown double buns of hair on her head and chocolate filled almond shaped eyes.

The loud voices and rambunctious kids surrounding her made her feel similar to a lone cat amongst dogs. Hinata replied with a nod, she knew she shouldn't be talking to this girl, with her cargo shorts, tight and slightly torn tank top, and vans clad feet; it was obvious she was in one of C.C.'s gangs. She hoped that the girl before her, like many others, would take her nod as a sign of discouragement for further questioning. This girl, however, took it as the opposite. The girl was especially happy to see that the indigo haired boy was acknowledging her, and allowing her to speak with him. "Why did you leave your last school?"

The girl's question instantly silenced the surrounding people, everyone wanted to hear about the new kid, they wanted something new to gossip about. When Hinata spoke, though, more of the class was silenced; slightly surprised at the boy's disposition. "That," Hinata began, "is none of your business."

Hinata didn't see the surprised look on the face of the girl, whose name was Tenten, because the bell rang and she walked out of that classroom as soon as she heard it. No one even saw her move.

- - - - -

Hinata was freaking out in the hallway, grasping her side while trying to breathe through her nose. Passer-bys didn't give her a second glance. Honestly no one cared about some boy who was freaking out on the side of the hall; some even shoved her a bit. She didn't take them any notice, she was too busy worrying about almost calling out a gang member. Surely she would be confronted for this. It seemed, to her, that everywhere she went, trouble followed her like gum stuck to the bottom of her shoe.

Finding that her course of thought was in fact making her breathing worse, she concentrated on her schedule. According to her paper, her next class would be third hour. Meaning she needed her chemistry book and binder. Her breathing slowly eased as her thoughts lingered on less threatening thoughts. Attention happened to be something at the very bottom of her to do list.

Hinata walked back to her locker, trying to avoid other people as she did so. When she reached her locker, she quickly dialed the combination, still slightly unsure of where her next class was. Her hands instantly found her binder but her book was presenting to be an issue, she couldn't find it in her locker.

Hinata started to panic, how had she already lost it, she had only had it for about half an hour. In her panic, she started tossing her books around in her locker, causing them to bang up the inside of her locker. The warning bell rang when Hinata had finally given up on her desperate search.

Feeling bitter towards the locker for taking her book and not giving it back, she slammed the door as hard as she could, resulting in a nice dent to form at the center of the door. "Shit" she mumbled as she walked down the hall, wincing slightly as she bumped into people, towards the direction she thought her next class might be. She would have to share a book with someone. She didn't know anyone at this school and yet she already needed to depend on one of them.

In a huff, she moved down the hall, her binder pinching into her fingertips as her grip tightened on the object. Losing her book meant more than just having to communicate with other students, it meant a disappointed Kurenai. Her adoptive mother was all she could really call family now, she barely knew her cousin Neji, and Kurenai was the only one she ever told about that day. Before her thoughts could take her there, she was saved. She had found her classroom.

Hinata grabbed the handle and heaved at the door, causing a nice swushing noise. She was greeted by havoc. The students inside this classroom were crazy. Almost no one at a desk, those who were, being on-top of them in some shape or form, paper flying across the room, people chatting animatedly in excessively loud voices. She felt as if she were in a high school movie from the nineties. "You've got to be kidding me" she muttered under her breath while walking through the class unnoticed.

Hinata slipped onto a chair at a back table, trying to avoid communicating with any of the students, she didn't really need this at the moment. What she needed was a nice long nap. She set her things atop her lab table and slightly off to the side. Leaving ample space for whoever decided to sit next to her, even though she really hoped no one would. Hinata folded her arms atop the table, laying her head across them. Deftly, Hinata shifted to make herself comfortable and cover her eyes from the harsh fluorescent lights above.

She tried to block out the noise in the room, _'Shouldn't class have already begun?'_ she thought absentmindedly. With a sigh she shifted again, becoming increasingly agitated. What the hell was up with this class, wasn't science usually the silent class were the teacher spoke in monotone and the students slowly slipped in their chairs and off their propped hands and headfirst onto the table? Hinata sighed again, she wasn't much liking this school.

Giving up on sleep, she decided to sit up and take a look around. _'Why not people watch? It could be fun to mock some of the kids at this school.'_ she convinced herself, lazily looking around at her fellow classmates. All of them had someone to talk to it seemed; she wished they would all shut up. Hinata's gaze drifted to the side of the room. Personally, she was grateful that the windows there were blocked by blinds but, some of the kids didn't seem to appreciate the dim light as she did. A rather barely dressed girl leaned over the counter towards the window, her skirt hiking up, revealing strawberry decorated panties. Hinata's nose scrunched in disgust, girls like that irritated her to no end. For some reason, all of them needed attention. And for some reason, they all thought that she, Hinata Hyuuga, was the guy to give it to them. Or at least they hoped he would. Maybe they thought her opinion to be worth more because of her obvious avoidance of all people. Huh.

She would have pondered this further if not for the fact that the girl was receiving attention. A lot of attention, from almost all of the male population. Apparently she couldn't reach the string to adjust the blinds, making her try and reach up and lean more for it, showing her panties even more. _'Oh wow'_ Hinata rolled her eyes, what an idiot. Hinata would have reprimanded the girl further but, the boys in the room were having issues with controlling themselves, practically ogling at the girl as she struggled for the string. Hinata rolled her eyes, _'Men.'_

Having had enough bull for the time being, Hinata reluctantly slid off her chair. She had to. The good part of her still festering in the back of her mind, was still making her do good things for people she didn't know when she really didn't want to. With a sigh she walked towards the girl with the extremely revealing skirt. She instantly received glares from boys, which she ignored and moved on.

Hinata rolled her eyes again when she reached the girl. Typical popular girl, with her strap shoes, extra mini skirt, and all too tight top. Hinata moved around the girl, who still hadn't noticed her being there, and stepped onto an open drawer. Then, she firmly grasped the string, tugged on it until the blind reached just below the top of the window, and hopped down to the floor, only to be met by the girl she was helping.

Hinata stared into green eyes with bright pink hair about them, and nearly fell over. This girl, who had been showing off her underwear to the entire class, used to be her friend, one of her best friends. Hinata could hardly believe it. _'How the hell did this happen? How the hell did I end up in the same district as before… that happened?'_ she thought frantically. Hinata's momentary shock wore off at the sight of Sakura's heavy blush. Apparently she found the new Hinata to be attractive. Hinata almost slapped the girl then and there. Now, suddenly because she was a dude, she was worth something. _'Not when I was in pain and my world was crashing down, oh no, but when I look like a guy, and a somewhat attractive guy at that, I am worth some attention.'_ Hinata thought ruefully.

She had been utterly ignored after the death of her family. She received no visits except the almost hourly nurse and daily doctor. _'I hate you'_ she found herself thinking with malice. Not because she had ignored her, not because she was attracted to her now, but because now, when she was standing before her, Sakura had absolutely no clue who she was.

"Sorry about that." Hinata mumbled and stepped away from the girl she once called friend. She swiftly walked back to her seat with the entire class watching her every movement. Apparently she had caught the attention of her fellow classmates. "Perfect" she muttered, sliding into her chair, the one thing she didn't want to happen just did. She was now recognized as a person of interest to the student body. "This sucks" she mumbled as she slipped into her earlier position of sleeping on her table.

The classroom slowly began to buzz with the voices of the students, all talking about 'the new kid' and him 'almost touching Sakura Haruno'. Hinata honestly couldn't careless what the kids were saying, she just wished they would shut up so she could sleep.

When she heard the seat beside her scrape against the floor, she almost growled. She didn't want anybody sitting next to her. Before she decided to do anything, she figured she better figure out who they were. Hinata slowly lifted her head up so she could peek at who sat beside her. Unfortunately, her mess of hair blocked her view. She plopped her head back down on her arms with an almost silent thunk, _'Why bother?' _

"So, you're the new kid, huh?" a sweet girly voice asked her. Hinata just replied with a grunt and shifted in her seat. "Talkative I see" Hinata just ignored her when she spoke again. _'Why the hell are you still here?' _she thought miserably. "I'm Sakura by the way, the girl you helped earlier" she said, a smile in her voice.

Hinata cringed, _'What the hell?' _ She sat up and looked at the girl beside her. "What do you want?" she asked, her anger barely contained.

"Well," the pink haired girl began, a large smile on her face, "I was just wondering if I could sit next to you."

Hinata just stared at the girl, irritation clear on her face. "Do I look like I care?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. Sakura just watched in surprise, her glossed mouth slightly agape. No one ever talked to her like that, well, almost no one. So, Sakura settled into her seat primly, with her legs cross, head high, and a big smile plastered across it.

Hinata's eyes widened in disbelief. This girl couldn't take a hint. She opened her mouth to say 'Get the hell away from me' but the teacher finally walked in through the door. The class instantly settled to their seats and ceased their talking. With a sigh she fell back onto the table, with 'This sucks' singing in her head.

- - - - -

The teacher for Chemistry was a real creeper. The outfit, hair, facial expressions, even his glasses, screamed, 'Avoid at all costs'. When he spoke about chemicals and how they reacted when combined, his glasses glinted, eerily reflecting light from the fluorescent bulbs above, and a smirk spread across his features, giving all kids a shiver down their spine. His light grey hair, which contradicted his age, was pulled back in a ponytail and his clothes consisted of purple pants, a white button-up, and a purple sweater vest. The definition of a creeper.

While Kabuto droned on, Hinata considered the school so far. She had noticed her teachers to be odd and supposed the school had weird teachers for one reason and one reason only, they couldn't get anyone else. She wasn't sure but she figured not many people would actually want to be at Central City High, given the students. Almost all the kids had issues of some sort.

Hinata sighed heavily while Kabuto continued to draw diagrams on the board. She was already seeing connections between herself and the students she despised. She too had more issues than she would like to count. At her last school, there had been some disputes about her affiliation with _Shukaku_. Of course, she told them they were wrong but, they didn't believe her. So, after winning a brute fight with some older boys, she ended up getting expelled from M.J. Grant. She was so used to the routine of being expelled from school, that she decided to save herself some time and boredom, and just leave. Just walk out of the school, like she owned the place.

Now, here she was, wasting away in some Chemistry class at Central City High because of her connections to _Shukaku_.

Hinata looked about the room. Sakura hadn't taken the hint at all so she was still happily sitting beside her, which Hinata ignored completely. Trying to remember her classmates from before her incident, and analyzed everyone in the class. Sakura had always been close with another girl besides Hinata. Hinata, almost straining to remember, thought her name was Ino, Ino Yamanaka or something like it. She started to search for her, looking for bright blond hair and skimpy clothes, most likely purple.

Almost instantly she spotted the girl, her hair tied up at the back of her head with a small purple halter-top with accompanied purple mini skirt. Did everyone at this school dress the same? Hinata sighed, that girl was here too, meaning a lot of other kids from before would be here too. Hinata's head thunked on the table, she was too tired for this kind of torture.

She looked up at the board again and towards the teacher, still finding it difficult to concentrate on the lesson at hand. Kabuto was still talking about atoms and chemicals. Hinata started settling in for a nice long nap when it was interrupted by the bell dinging loudly. With relief stretching across her face, she stood and moved towards the door before Kabuto could have a chance of seeing her.

"Are you the new student, Hinata Hyuuga?" just as before, all Hinata did was nod and continued on her way to her next class.

- - - - -

Hinata couldn't believe this had slipped her mind. Anyone else would have thought about this but she didn't have this elective at her last school. So, she just stared at the two doors in front of her, unsure of what to do.

"Dude, you're in the way" a girl said as she shoved past Hinata and into the girls' locker room. Her problem just so happened to be that she wasn't sure which locker room to go into. She was supposed to be a boy in the eyes of all the teachers and students but, she needed to change into her gym-uniform, and her being a girl, she should go into the girls' locker room to do that. Except, as soon as she would walk in she would hear screaming and be hit, most likely, multiple times. She didn't need that at the moment. The other door which would lead to the boys' locker room would be extremely uncomfortable for her, most likely resulting in her being exposed, or her eyes burning at the sight of many, many, many naked boys. Something she truly didn't want to endure at the moment. So, she just walked away, heading for the gym instead. She could just change later or make an excuse.

Hinata walked through the double doors of the gym and headed towards some wood bleachers. She walked up until she reached about mid-way and sat down with her limbs sprawled out across the seats. No one was in there yet so Hinata figured she was okay for now. Unfortunately, her "alone time" was immediately interrupted.

"Hey kid, what the hell do you think you're doing, go and get dressed!" a woman yelled as she stomped into the gym. At the sudden noise Hinata lurched forward and her limbs went about her in a precarious fashion, with her head whipping around to find the source. She found a woman with dark purple hair tied up in a knot, simply a mess, wearing combat boots with dark gray leggings with a khaki skirt and clingy white tank top, covered by a black sweat jacket, the silver whistle around her neck identified her as a gym teacher but, Hinata already knew who the woman was.

Hinata wanted to scream at Anko, a close friend of Kurenai's, but she figured Anko was her teacher now and she shouldn't cause a scene. "Yes ma'am," Hinata said, hopping up onto the bleacher seats and jumping on them on her way down to Anko.

Hinata stopped in front of Anko, only a foot away from her, and smiled. "Recognize me yet Anko?" Hinata asked, her smile growing ever stronger.

Anko's mouth opened, intent on yelling at the teenager in front of her and forcing them to run laps while the class simply watched, only to be halted and stay silent. Anko was shocked; she didn't expect to see Hinata _here_, of all places. Anko knew Hinata, through her being one of Kurenai's close friends. She knew her past, and how Kurenai reacted to it, being one of the persons she called the night she found out what exactly had happened to Hinata. This, unfortunately for Anko, caused Hinata to trust her completely.

Anko couldn't help but smile, "What are you doing here? I thought you went to M.J. Grant."

Hinata's smile changed to a smirk, "I got-uh-transferred again." Anko only replied with an 'ah', knowing full well what Hinata meant. "Do you think," Hinata began, her face slowly turning a whiter color, "that we could go to your office real quick, until the other kids get here?" she asked, her smile slowly getting shaky.

Anko replied with a nod and gestured for Hinata to follow her. The two walked towards the double doors and into the hallway. Straight across from the locker rooms, just down the hall, were the coaches' offices, their door across from the locker room of their respective gender. Anko, searching for a key in her pocket, answered Hinata's unasked question of who the other office belonged to. "That's Gai's office, he's the other gym teacher, he's really annoying," she said with a roll of her eyes and the click of the lock. "Come on in," she said, waving a hand for Hinata to follow her into the room.

Anko walked into her office, sitting down in a rolling chair behind her desk. On the wall to the left, beside the desk, was a message board, covering the expanse of plain white wall. Opposite the office door, a large window let in light, with a cushioned bench just beneath it. On the right wall was a door, leading to a private bathroom, complete with shower, sink, and toilet. Towards the office door was a filing cabinet with a calendar above it. Behind Anko's chair, was Hinata stumbling in after her.

Her face was slowly paling to a bright white and the edges of her sight were fading to gray. "Anko," Hinata said, sitting down on the bench and grabbing her side, "I need your help."

With a move of her hand, Anko slammed the door behind her shut. "What do you need Hinata?" she asked, moving towards the girl.

"Bandages," Hinata said, taking off her hoodie to reveal a loose wifebeater beneath it.

"For what?"

"For this," Hinata replied, lifting up her tank top to reveal bandages surrounding her chest and a dark purple bruise stretching across her ribcage.

"What the _hell_ did you do?!" Anko scolded, looking down at Hinata like she was a five year-old child. Hinata just shrugged, then hissed, finding it hurt to do so. Anko huffed and turned towards her bathroom, searching for a first aid kit. She was ticked but she knew Hinata needed some salve and bandages for that bruise, seeing as it was slowly turning green in the center and gray at the edges.

"So, what do you think the damage is?" Hinata asked Anko while she searched through her cabinets.

"It looks like you at least broke three ribs from here, but I can't tell for sure until I look at them more closely."

Hinata sighed. She needed to fix this right away, if Kurenai noticed she had been fighting the other night, there would be problems. Anko re-entered the room with a small white kit in her hands. Knowing this routine rather well, Hinata eased back into her chair.

Anko sat on the green tiled floor in front of Hinata. She carefully started brushing her fingers against Hinata's ribs, when her finger tips came in contact with bone, Hinata couldn't help but hiss. "You know, this sort of thing really isn't good for you…" Anko said, exasperated at Hinata's condition. The girl clearly didn't care how much damage she did to her body. Anko reached for the salve, knowing now that Hinata had broken at least two ribs and fractured two others. "This should help some," Anko muttered, moving her goop covered fingers over the bruised areas, brushing lightly against Hinata's ribs. Hinata, not one to pay too much attention to wounds since her past experiences of doctors fussing over her, started counting ceiling tiles.

'… _2… 4… 6…'_ Anko wiped some more salve across the entirety of Hinata's ribs then set the small jar back in the kit while taking out a bandage wrap.

'… _12… 14… 16…'_ Anko wrapped the bandage around Hinata's torso, wincing slightly when she pressed too hard on the bruised area of Hinata's ribs. All Hinata did was bite her lower lip, trying to silent the air trying to hiss through her mouth. Anko hastily finished her work, fastening the end of the bandage to another piece with a clip. "All done," Anko whispered, trying not to discomfort Hinata.

Anko sat back on the ground while Hinata put herself together, quickly bringing her hoodie back over her head. "So," Anko began uneasily, "what are you going to do?"

Hinata's eyes widened, she wasn't entirely sure what she was going to do. She could try to sneak into the girls' locker room and change but, eventually she would have to come out. She could bear through it and somehow change in the boys' locker room… Yet, she still didn't want to have to come to that.

"Anko," Hinata mumbled, shifting in her seat, "do you think I could just change in here… for the rest of the time I have this class…" she tried to smile and say it sweetly but, there was no way of her words sounding simple.

"No."

"Bu-bu-but… Anko-o, please," Hinata got down on her knees, pleading with the stubborn Anko who was pacing around her office now. "Pretty please," Hinata begged, her eyes growing wide in desperation and fear.

"Hinata you know I–"

A loud BAM reached their ears as someone hit the door to the office. "Anko-o-o!" yelled a male voice from outside her door, "class is beginning, and the students will need to be split up in order to equally participate!"

"Give me a second GAI!" Anko yelled, standing up and walking towards the door, while making gestures for Hinata to hurry up and follow her, "I'll be right out!"

"Fine, but make sure you remember to bring the attendance list, we don't need anyone skipping out on gym, especially since what happened last week…" Gai trailed off, not wanting to elaborate. Last time they forgot to take attendance, two members from separate gangs had attacked each other. It had caused a rather large mess and set the entire staff on edge for weeks.

"I'll be right out Gai, just give me a minute, I AM a _girl_ ya know!" Anko yelled through the door.

"Uh-oh-ya, um… Right, I'll just get started then," Gai fumbled, hurrying over to the Gym.

With a sigh, Anko looked back at Hinata, her eyes resting on the slightly despairing girl. "Ugh," Anko moaned, "Fine! I'll give you the okay not to participate today, seeing as you are both injured and a new student. But, next time, you better be ready to participate in class. I don't care where you change or how, as long as it isn't in my room. That's all I can do for you for now." Anko huffed and opened her office door with a huff feeling utterly drained.

Hinata, invigorated at the thought of being able to wait until next time to have to deal with the horror bestowed upon her, she jumped into the air. Only to hiss in pain and grab her side: she really needed to learn to be mindful of her injuries.

- - - - -

For the entirety of Physical Education, Hinata slept. Not waking up for anything at all. Not when the girls yelled for her attention, the boys almost hit her with the basketball, or when she started to slip from the top row of the bleachers. She woke up, finally, when the loud ringing of the bell echoed through the Gym.

She hurried to her locker, only to find that she had lunch after Gym. Hinata searched her locker for her lunch but, was unable to find anything remotely similar to food or money.

Irritated by the day she was having, she kicked her locker.

Hinata, trying to find something better to do, fished her iPod out from the pocket of her hoodie. She started to blare her playlist while grabbing her World History book and spiral notebook. Then, Hinata made her way towards her fifth hour class, World History, with Asuma Sarutobi.

The rest of her day was similar, with having to go to sixth hour Computers with Ebisu and seventh hour English with Iruka.

In all of her classes, Hinata either slept or listened to her iPod, waiting for the teacher to finish compiling their notes on the board so that she could just write them down and leave. She just wanted to get back and practice with her friends. However, she found, throughout all of her classes, she had done the opposite of what she had intended: receive attention.

In every class, there seemed to be something that got everyone to notice her.

In World History with Mr. Sarutobi, she had accidently called him Asuma, in front of the entire class. Apparently, although outside school and at her house, she could call him Asuma, Kurenai's boyfriend, inside school she couldn't, at all. She ended up sitting in the hallway after that, and although the green halls tile is green like grass, or pine, it isn't as soft as it. Hinata had learned this the hard way after trying to sleep on the tile.

In Computers with Ebisu, apparently _not_ following the rules, and sleeping on the keyboard, was a very bad idea. Calling Mr. Ebisu a blind weirdo didn't help either, even if it was mumbled. She ended up in the hallway again. To Hinata, it started to seem that the teachers' only comeback was to send the students into the hall to be threatened by gang members instead of actually sending them to detention. However, Hinata didn't appear to be anything to worry about: a rather short emo boy wasn't anything they deemed as "worrisome".

With Iruka, the English teacher, Hinata wasn't punished. There was no need. All she did was attempt to sleep while the other kids kicked chairs about, argued, and acted, simply, like wild animals. It was worse than Chemistry, seeing as the teacher was in the room, the entire time.

When the bell rang for the end of school, chaos ensued. Kids ran through the halls, yelling to their friends and enemies. It was all Hinata could do to stay out of the way by pressing herself against her locker.

When the way seemed clear, Hinata started to gather her things. She left the school's grounds as quickly as possible, trying to reach home before Kurenai, and leave home before Neji could lecture her.

- - - - -

Hinata passed through the gray streets, trying to reach the subway and catch her ride, not wanting to have to wait another ten minutes for the next train. Finding the underground's opening, she ran down the steps, swiping her card and running towards the coming train.

The doors opened slowly, with no one getting off. Hinata ran through before they could close. Catching her breath, she looked around, searching for a seat.

Exhaling, Hinata fell into a seat, placing her headphones over her ears and turning up her music, thinking of other times on the railway.

_It had been a hard day. Fighting with upperclassmen always left her somewhat drained, and, knowing the speech that waited for her at home, she was in no hurry to get there._

_The doors of the train opened to reveal a typical car: a row of ten double seats on both sides, with a strip of seating at both ends of the train, three polls in the aisle, and five polls creating a pentagon at both ends, just in front of each strip of seats._

_Hinata moved slowly, as the train started up, towards a seat five rows in. Hinata sat down, trying to mind her slightly bleeding knuckles and bruised thighs and abdomen. Biting her lip, she tilted her head back, trying to relax._

_The train stopped again, halting for another pick up. Hinata sighed and opened her eyes, trying to see if she would have to share her car with anyone else, when she really didn't want to._

_A fiery redhead stepped onto the train, his sea foam green eyes wandering around the car, inspecting the various seats. With a turn he sat down, claiming the strip at the back for himself. He too tilted his head back as Hinata had done before. Suddenly, his head snapped forward and their eyes met, green meeting lavender._

_The two inspected each other, accessing threat._

_Hinata stared at the boy, finding dark black circles around his eyes, marking him as clearly tired. However, she was searching for any gang symbols on his person, such as the red cloud for Akatsuki and any music note for the Sound. However, she found no such symbols. Only that the boy liked red and black a little too much, seeing as his t-shirt was blood red with a white wifebeater underneath, a black zip up over the t-shirt, and black cargo jacket, atop his jacket. His pants, however, were black raggedy jeans with black vans. A chain linked between two of his belt loops and a mark in black ink completed what she had already assumed, he was a free fighter, just like herself._

_Hinata, however, being as sleepy as she was, didn't notice that the boy was inspecting her too. Her dark clothing of a dark blue hoodie, over a white wifebeater, with dark jeans and dark black vans for shoes, branded her as being liable as a gang member. However, he too was unable to find any marks, identifying her as a gang member of anything. The fiery redhead, however, saw the black ink mark that crept across her hand and up her forearm. Clearly, she was a free fighter._

_The two nodded to each other, recognizing the other as the same and not wanting to harm the other. However, there was a hint of challenge in both of their eyes._

_The boy sat forward, placing his elbows on their corresponding knees and bringing both his hands together, as if forming a prayer. "Show me your moves," he ordered._

_And she did. Kicking the balls of her feet across each poll, propelling her body forward and back, spinning through the air like a trapeze artist without a partner, however, she didn't seem to need one. Her hands clasped a bar overhead, linking all the polls together, she used inertia, and swung herself forward, spinning towards the boy at the end of the car. Suddenly, before slamming into the boy, she rotated in a circle in the air, and, just barely making any noise, as her feet touched the ground in front of the teenager._

"_Well," the boy began, "I gotta say, I've never seen anyone move that fast."_

_Hinata just smiled, keeping her head down._

"_Especially a girl," the boy said with a smirk. Instantly Hinata's head shot up, her eyes wide open and bangs a mess. "My name's Gaara Sibaku," the boy explained, "and I would like to know your name."_

_Hinata hesitated and looked around. Her eyes lit up but she tried to keep her face guarded as the train came to the next stop. "I'm afraid," she said, looking towards the opening double doors, "you'll have to wait until next time, when you show me your moves."_

_And she walked out, not knowing that she had just left a soon to be gang leader very, very interested. Soon, she would find just how much, and just how deep she had just gotten herself into the business of _all_ gangs. Soon, she would find herself being the best weapon ion all of the gangs. Becoming Hime._

Hinata shook her head, releasing herself from her memories. The doors to the train slid open and she looked out at the platform, finding it to be her stop.

She grabbed her backpack and made her way through the underground and towards exit.

Looking around her neighborhood and reliving her day in her head, Hinata couldn't help but mumble, "I think I'm in _way_ over my head."

- - - - - -

Author's Note:

Yes, it's finally over. (the chapter… not the fanfic…) There may be hints of Gaahina, it'll most likely happen by accident… BUT, I plan on Sasuhina, soon it'll be the only one to make sense… so… THANKS FOR READING!!! Also, review if ya please. (you don't have to… it's just nice… that way I know someone read it…) The next chapter may end up being about the same length… sorry. Also, I apologize for the lack of action in this chapter.


	3. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own the Naruto characters

Author's Note:

I... am.... so..... SOOOOORRRRRYYY!!!!!!! I went away to camp for two weeks and when I came back I didn't like this chapter at all so I ended up redoing it except for the fact that I ended up changing a lot of the main plot along with it!!!! I promise that I will do my best for this to not happen again!!! At least this chapter is long.... and includes SasuHina-ish stuff... well the beginnings at least.... WELL IT INCLUDES SASUKE TIME SO THERE!!! Anyway, on with the actual story!!!!

- - - - -

Ch. 2 - How to Save a Life

_Hinata had just walked through the front door after practice. She had taken longer than she normally did and she knew she would pay for it._

_She was right._

_Instantly Hiashi was on her. Pulling her hair and screaming at her. Hinata didn't know what to do, her muscles all ached from earlier strain and her father was clearly angrier than usual._

_Her eyes moved around, frantically searching for Hanabi. She didn't want her sister anywhere near the mad man._

_Her father yanked on her hair, causing Hinata to release an involuntarily yelp. Her hands went up, hastily trying to cover her mouth, wishing she hadn't allowed the horrible noise out. But, it was too late. Hiashi had heard, and he didn't like it when she made a fuss._

_His eyes crazed and mind clouded, Hiashi grabbed Hinata's arms. With a slight lift of his arms he pushed her against the wall. Moving a hand to her head and the other to her pinned forearm, Hiashi began to repeatedly hit Hinata's head against the wall._

_Tears silently streaming down her cheeks, Hinata bit her lip, trying to keep her cries in her throat. When blood started to trickle down her lip, Hiashi started to beat her abdomen. Yelling for her to "SHUT UP," Hiashi assaulted her midsection further, using what nails he had._

_Suddenly, he let go and backed away, allowing Hinata to crumple to the floor. Grumbling about how he hated his daughter, Hiashi headed for the door, most likely to wander the town and search for a bar he was still allowed entry to._

_Hinata spluttered up blood as she coughed, just before Hiashi left._

_Again he was on her. Kicking her repeatedly as she feebly tried to protect herself with her arms. With a grunt, Hiashi gave Hinata one last kick and stumbled towards the door, slamming it when he left._

_Hinata heard his slow steps on the sidewalk, as he headed towards the street, slowly begin to fade._

_When she was certain she could no longer hear him. She began to weep, unable to keep silent any longer. She tried to push herself up off the ground and lean against the wall, finding it to be difficult._

_When she finally was able to lean her back against the wall, she stiffly moved her legs towards her chest and wrapped her arms around them. Then she moved towards the staircase, trying to crawl towards her room, as she found herself doing so often._

_Not expecting any sort of answer, she asked "Why?". Hoping her mind would provide an answer as to why she had to endure this._

_Bent over, crying on the steps of the stairs, Hinata hadn't heard the door open up again. Nor did she hear the weighted steps nearing her._

"_Why?" she cried out._

"_Because, I HATE YOU!"_

_Hinata had just enough time to brace herself for impact. Her father grabbed at her leg, pulling her towards himself. Then, he snatched at her arm as she moved her other hand to shield her face._

_His other hand snatched at her hair and pulled. Hinata found herself looking into the eyes she hated, with malice and the will to kill flowing from them. "I'm going to kill you," he hissed._

_He pulled on her hair, thrusting her into the wall _-

- - - - -

Hinata lurched forward in her bed, eyes wide and flitting about her room, a scream on her lips. She knew the rest of that dream, because it was no dream, it was one of her _many _experiences with her father.

Sighing, she stiffly removed herself from her bed. Trying to wave the nightmare off, she rubbed her head, her short hair rustling about as she did.

Still not quite used to the darkness of her room, Hinata rubbed her eyes, hoping to be able to see some of the shapes in her surroundings.

Searching for the cool metal surface of the lamp beside her bed, Hinata came in contact with just the opposite.

"So you're finally awake."

Normally, at the low thrum of a person's voice in her room, Hinata would jump, shriek, and lash-out and hit them. However, Hinata knew that voice.

"Took you long enough Gaara," she mumbled, grasping the chain of her lamp and pulling down. Dim light pushed back the immediate shadows surrounding the two teenagers. Hinata's eyes scampered over to her alarm clock, noting the late- or rather- early hour, 12:56 AM.

Hinata stood, moving towards the side of her room where shadows still remained. Some shuffling sounds could be heard, as if she was searching through the clothing on the floor for what she was to wear tonight.

Suddenly her head appeared from the shadows. Gaara looked at her expectantly, not sure what she wanted. With a circular movement of her hand Gaara understood. "Turn around" she was saying, in other words, "I'm changing and I don't need you to watch". Gaara rolled his eyes at her innocent request but none the less obliged.

A few more shuffling and shifting and one bounce noise later, Hinata was ready. She came out of the shadows to reveal her alteredlook. Her usual dark black visor like sunglasses, lined by white, was intended to hide her eyes from her enemies,the easiest way to discern a piece of her identity. A light purple hoodie, with the bottom cut off, over a loose tank top covered her torso. Accompanied by a mini skirt with shorts underneath and, her now trademark, striped socks with over-sized soft-leather boots, their buckles undone and touching the floor.

Her clothing for "activities" was to offset her daily attire, so no one would recognize her, also to make movements easier for her, although her shoes did restrict movement, she took them off for fighting anyway. Her hairstyle didn't matter, by night, her hair would be so disheveled and an absolute mess that she hardly looked anything like her day-self.

Altogether, she looked almost feminine.

"Well," Gaara said, "that should do nicely," deciding not to comment on her studded belt or scattered skull and cross bone symbols across her attire. Last time he had gave her trouble about her ensemble he had to deal with an emotional breakdown, he was guessing it was one of those days for her.

"You ready to go," he asked tentatively, watching her scoop up various weapons on the floor. _'Is that really necessary?' _he thought slightly irritably. The chances of them fighting any gangs tonight, after gaining an entire sector the night before, was slim, very slim. Knowing that he had to be the leader of the gang _Shukaku_, show a good example for his followers, and be prepared for the unexpected, he too had taken his own assortment of weapons he deemed necessary, he just didn't see the point in her taking some as well.

The two, stood still, waiting for the other to report of any trouble had occurred in their current territory. When neither said a word, Gaara gestured for Hinata to lift up her sleeves.

Sighing and irritated, Hinata ripped the left sleeve off her hoodie, just so that a strip of her bicep showed. The design was based as three jagged lines, it's colors red and black, to create a mark similar to the remnants of an animal attacking with its claws, just like Gaara wanted.

The symbol that labeled them as _Shukaku, _as they had all decided, the mark was made so that it would only be noticed if the person was searching for it, but could be covered by a bandage or simply makeup. No one wanted any extra trouble after "active" hours, so the decision was easy to make.

"Let's go," Hinata stated, turning off her light and opening her bedroom window, gesturing for Gaara to go first.

"Ladies first," he said, a smirk on his face, sweeping his arm and bowing humbly: causing his black trench coat to sweep about him and around his slim but strong frame.

Hinata nodded at his dark form, and leaped out the window, not looking back for a second.

- - - - -

For Gaara and Hinata, the relationship they had started in eighth grade, had changed so that they knew each others' abilities almost as well as they knew their own. As a result they found the others' short comings and secrets as their friendship grew.

Hinata had found out that the Sibaku siblings had family issues too, however, theirs weren't as severe, no matter how they tried to look at it. Gaara too had heard Hinata's past, unlike Kurenai, he asked her what she thought of it. With the way he said it and the fact that nobody else had asked, she told him the truth.

"_I honestly don't know what to think."_

Eventually, the two found each others' gifts they had gained by accident. For Hinata it was experience with injuries and being able to still be able to work through them, and for Gaara it was his obvious gift of riding and driving any sort of transportation.

Like they were now.

Riding on Gaara's bright red Suzuki motorcycle; tricked out, personally, by his brother Kankuro, who also happened to be the maker of all their sources of transportation.

The two were heading for the usual meeting place, an abandoned warehouse in downtown Konoha. However, since their group had been established, it was not so abandoned. Now filled with anything and everything they need on the inside, and looking positively condemned on the outside.

The gravel beneath the bike's tires stirred about as it came to a halt in front of their warehouse. The two slowly released their grip from the cycle and pulled off their helmets', reminding themselves of the sensation of being still; Gaara wasn't exactly a law abiding driver, causing their experiences to always be interesting and fast when trying to get from point 'A' to point 'B'.

Stepping away from the bike and towards the warehouse, Hinata appraised its outlook. To the normal passerby it looked like any other gray building covered in graffiti tags and slowly crumbling on the outside. To someone who knew the entire building like the back of their own hand, it was obvious the entire gang was already here.

"Come on, they'll be expecting us," Gaara mumbled, passing by Hinata en route towards the warehouse and their waiting teammates.

With Hinata following Gaara's coat tails, he swept the back door to the warehouse open.

"What took you so long?" whined Kiba, a tan dark-haired boy with bright red snakebite piercings, one stud on either side of his lower lip, jumping down from his standing point on a rafter's pipe.

Normally, Hinata would gasp in surprise at someone falling from the sky. For Kiba though, this was typical, especially in the warehouse.

The trio, continued through the debris filled back room, pushing through old car parts and plastic bags of old clothes or plain old garbage. The whole time trying to keep the offensive smell of dead somethings from reaching their noses. Using the familiar textures of their surroundings as a guide, they navigated their way towards the right corner wall, searching for the small hole in the wall near the floor.

Each taking their turn, they pushed their way through the three foot tall gap, heading toward the light on the other side.

"You know," a gruff male voice on the other side began, "they're taking a lot longer than they normally do."

As Hinata emerged from the other side, she was greeted by the hearty laughter of her only fellow female in the entire group. "Calm down Kuku," the female continued through giggling, "they'll be here any minute."

"They're here now," a soft baritone replied as the trio entered the room to see they're main room.

"Sorry for the delay," Hinata said softly to her team, feeling solely responsible for her and Gaara's being late to the patrol meeting.

"Oh no, no Hime, its okay, I'm sure it wasn't your fault," the gruff male voice of Kankuro said, sitting at his work station across the room, his hands working meticulously on his latest upgrade for their rides.

"It was most likely Gaara's fault Hime, he has been moving rather slow lately..." Kiba said hoarsely, trying to make it so only Hinata heard him and failing miserably.

"What did you say... metal mouth?" Gaara growled, taking a step towards Kiba across the cement floor, leaning in towards his victim.

"W-we-well, you-you ha-have been ac-acting ki-ki-kinda strange.... lately...."

"Is that so," Gaara said, his voice monotone but expression indignant, even if it was subtle.

"Yea GaaGaa," Temari jumped in, trying to clarify Kiba's attitude, "you usually take way less time then that to go and pick up Hime," she continued, tilting her head to the side while all four blond, red tipped, ponytails dipped down with the movement.

Kiba lean against the nearest wall and slipped down, knowing very well that Gaara was in fact a force to be reckoned with. With a sigh Gaara went across the room, past Kankuro's station, and toward his own back room, slamming the door behind him.

"Whatever," Kankuro grumbled to himself, hurt slightly by everyone's interest in everything except his current project, "at least he brought Hime with him this time."

"Wha you say Kuku?" Hinata asked, tilting her head slightly as she walked around the table at the center of the spacious room and towards the irritated teenager.

"N-nothing Hime."

Hinata just nodded her head at his response and resigned herself to redirecting her course and sitting on the beat-up black couch with Shino, a quite boy who also wore sunglasses at night and a high collared canvas jacket, making it difficult to see his face.

Tilting her head back so it barely balanced on a pillow, Hinata sighed and tried to erase all the bad memories and feelings her dream had drudged back up. She definitely didn't need to have an emotional breakdown in front of everyone here, seeing as she was their "Hime", as they put it.

It wasn't like they would actually see her loose her cool though. For one, no one could see her eyes through the black glass. Two, she had become a master of controlling her emotions. It paid to go from living with Hiashi to living with Kurenai. One only observed your face in search of any shed of happiness, while the other searched for any source of pain and sadness. Pretty much all bases were covered so that amongst her friends and her enemies, no one would see her wall fall down. No one would see her healing scars or her new wounds. No one would see anything unless she permitted so.

"Hime," the soft baritone said beside her ear, "we need to go."

Hinata stood straight up, not missing a beat, her eyes going wide in fear before she realized there was nothing to fear. The voice was from none other than Shino, one of the few who would never hurt her.

"R-right..." Hinata fumbled over her words and headed towards the open stairwell, "I'll go out and patrol the southern quadrant, you and Kiba go to the eastern quadrant and stay together. Gaara'll take the northern, like always, Temari and Kankuro will go separately through the western quadrant. Remember to keep the lines open until your check-in or in case something happens. See you later."

With that rather long speech, for Hinata anyway, and her shoes at the couch, she was gone from the stairs, on the second level, and running through the hall and towards the window. With one jump towards the window, she was outside the warehouse.

And she was free-falling.

- - - - -

Twisting and turning through the sky, Hinata was moving as swift as death and just as silent. This was her trick, her gift, and no one could top her.

Flipping from building to building as she checked for new tags, her arms became legs and legs became arms and vice versa.

Her body twirled and twisted through gaps in structures, and pushed off them with enough force to make a hole where she pressed, yet soft enough that you could hardly tell the dust unsettled.

Sky became land and land sky with mixing lights and colors as she spun, propelling herself through the space in the night.

She loved this feeling. This adrenaline rush that she got every time she experienced this type of movement, this kind of rhythm. Nothing else was quite like it, and she wasn't sure anyone else felt it, but she knew it was amazing, she knew it was special. Not only that, her sister had died for this feeling.

If this feeling, this rush, hadn't felt as it did, if it didn't intoxicate her this way, she wouldn't have practiced longer. She would never have been late getting home. She would never have been too late to protect her sister, to save her life.

This feeling came with a price and she had paid in full. She had felt the pain of loss and falling through nothing. It wasn't quite the same as falling through empty space, falling through nothingness that is. You couldn't feel anything. Not a thing. Not even the horror of it all. Just.... numb. And not even knowing it.

This feeling, this rush, for Hinata was both good and bad. According to _Shukaku_ she was dancing on air. According to common knowledge she was free-running. According to herself... she was numbing and exploding all at once. Erasing everything in her path.

SKIHISS-

Hinata slid to a halt, her feet grazing over an unfamiliar smooth surface. It felt liquid cool but thicker then blood. Hinata's gaze left the sky above, and moved to the wall below her feet that she was gripping with her hand.

An alley in the dead center of their southern quadrant had been tagged.

"Shit."

- - - - -

Gaara, riding his bright red Suzuki north on the streets of the northern quadrant, jerked his hands across his grip at the unexpected buzzing in his ear. His calculating gaze slid across his bars, his eyes hesitating on the violently green numbers reading 2:23 AM.

If the buzzing from his ear bud was any indication, the person contacting him should be none other than Hime Hinata. However, he knew her and he knew that without fail, she would only ever call at her designated calling time, 2:30 AM, not a minute before or after. If Hinata was calling him at 2:23 AM, seven minutes before her time, either she was in trouble or he got the buzzing wrong. He's never wrong.

Gripping the throttle and slamming down on his gas, Gaara twisted the Suzuki around suddenly, heading towards the southern quadrant. "What's wrong?" Gaara asked, his tone slipping up.

"_**Gaara...**_"

"What? What is it? Come on, you know-"

"_**We've got a fresh tag on our turf....**_"

"Are you positive?"

"_**Gaara...**_"

"I'm on my way, call the others."

- - - - -

"I will..."

The dial tone was already in her ear before she could even tell him, the opposing gang was already within her site. Close enough to their tag of a large hawk that she could jump right onto any of the members' heads.

"Damn _Hebi_'s..." Hinata muttered, pressing her ear piece again so she could contact the rest of the team.

Hinata waited for the device to put her through to her other teammates, hoping for the device made by Shino to hurry up. The "bug" in her ear, as Shino had named them, made a quiet clicking noise, letting her know she was connected to all of _Shukaku_, excluding Gaara.

"I've got some _Hebi_'s in the South quadrant in the back alley of West Broken Boulevard. Gaara's on his way, whoever's closest, get here soon."

Hinata waited for her fellow _Shukaku_ to buzz in, hoping to hear confirmation on receiving her order.

"_**Kiba and Shino here, we'll be there in twenty-five minutes! Don't worry Hime, we'll take care of it!**_" yelled an over excited and extremely pumped Kiba.

"_**You dumb ass, she said WEST Broken, not EAST! You'll take way the hell longer than either Kankuro or me, just keep patrolling your area and **__-_"

"_**Who the HELL do you think you are Temari?!**_" roared Kiba through the bugs, "_**Unlike SOME people, I'm willing to give it my ALL, ALWAYS, no matter WHAT the**_ -"

"_**OH! You can shove that bull shit up your f**_-"

"_**Really...**_" Kankuro interupted, rather reluctantly, "_**Temari, is that really necessary. I mean, I'm the closest so why don't**_ -"

"Okay all of you need to calm -" Hinata tried to intervene.

"_**What did you just SAY YOU BI **_-" Kiba ranted to Temari.

"That, is quite enough. Kankuro, where are you exactly?" Hinata asked dejectedly.

"_**SAYS THE DOG-LOVER! I MEAN... what the FUCK, YOUR SUCH A F **_-"

"_**I'm on 31****st**** Street, I can be there in fifteen minutes Hime,**_" Kankuro answered confidently.

"_**WHO YOU CALLING A F**_ -"

"See you then Kuku," Hinata whispered into the bug. Pressing down on the piece twice, Hinata ended the roar of voices. With a small smile tugging at her lips, she almost giggled at Temari and Kiba's hotheadedness. Neither could ever seem to out yell the other either. After about a year of training with and knowing the two, it was always the same when they both thought they were right. '_I'm surprised, usually Shino steps in before they start out right calling each other "fuck-ups",_' which really was useless. It could be said that actually being a "fuck-up" was a requirement to even be part of Shukaku. '_Hence my high-ranking,_' Hinata thought, her small smile leaving her face, like a change of tide.

Hinata's eyes shifted over the _Hebi_ group once more.

They were about to leave, heading for the alleyway's entrance.

"Well shit," Hinata muttered, and, with a jump and a 360 flip, she was running after them.

- - - - -

The team _Hebi_ wasn't one with many members. Unlike Akatsuki and Kyuubi, their method of action to attack opposing gangs wasn't numbers, they used powerful abilities to out-do other gangs, finding it more beneficial. Not as many to keep tabs on or keep remotely safe. Much easier for Sasuke Uchiha, their leader, to deal with.

This (cruel) logic, was all part of Sasuke's plan, with encouragement from his second in command Karin. Well, she was a self-proclaimed second in command, but she proved to be useful so Sasuke allowed her illusion to continue. However, their reasons were completely different from the others'. Sasuke didn't want to have to deal with people in general. Karin, however, didn't want anyone of the female persuasion anywhere near Sasuke. She happened to be extremely possessive, even if he wasn't her's to feel possessive for.

That never stopped her from throwing herself at him before. Or like she was now.

"Ouji," Karin called to Sasuke, batting her eyes and flipping her unusual red hair.

Sasuke, his ebony eyes roaming the alley and pretty much anywhere but Karin, was completely irked by the irritating girl. Without so much as acknowledging her presence with a glare, Sasuke gave her a disinterested "What?" to shut her up.

"Catch ME!!!" she yelled, running towards him and leaping for his arms.

Sasuke ignored her and moved clear out of her way and towards the wall.

Suigetsu and Juugo, the other two members of _Hebi_, were entirely accustomed to this behavior. So, they completely ignored it whenever it occurred. At the moment, only Suigetsu had to endure the ridiculous behavior.

"Tell me, why, again, did we tag on the _Shukaku_ territory when they're newbies and nobodies?" Suigetsu whined, his arms crossed and back leaning against the brick wall.

Sasuke sighing, motioned for Suigetsu to lean towards him, to which Suigetsu obliged.  
"Because," Sasuke began, his manner mild, "_Shukaku_ is-"

"Come on Suigetsu," Karin whined, "Sasuke's told you twice already, they have some delirious Hime person so we _have_ to kick their ass before they become a problem, jeez!" Karin yelled, picking herself up off the ground.

"Besides, quit hogging Ouji to yourself."

"Shut up, you dumb broad," Suigetsu hissed, his eyes sharpening.

"Oh, so you wanna go-"

'_I don't want to deal with your bull shit tonight_,' Sasuke thought, tempted to rub his temples.

"We came here to provoke them and see if this so called 'Hime' would show up," Sasuke said, his tone never fluctuating. However, his dark depths for eyes clearly showed he was by no means happy. He clearly wanted to cause the two some serious physical harm, however, he knew very well that they had value.

They were resources for him to dry up for now, weren't they? You couldn't go around leaving your resources unusable when you would most likely need them most. For now, it would simply be sufficient to gear his anger towards their current objective and enemy _Shukaku_.

"Come on, lets go check the streets to see if we see anyone with their symbols walking around," Suigetsu whined at their inactivity.

"Fine," Sasuke made a gesture for the two to go out and scout while he laid in waiting, simply leaning against the wall in the shadows.

"Ouji," Karin called, flipping her hair about as she turned back to face him, "why do I have to-"

Her question was cut off my Sasuke's simple arch of his brow. Any remote change in his features around his eyes was always bad. This particular change clearly showed he was in no mood to deal with Karin and her whinning.

"Never mind Ouji," Karin sighed, turning back around.

Sasuke tipped his head back, hoping the sight of black abyss would get him to calm down somewhat. He could still hear Karin and Suigetsu's arguing, however, and as he tried to tune out their noise, another entered his hearing.

SFWISSSH-

Sasuke's eyes snapped open to see a girl flying over his head. Literally flying. '_How the hell is that even possible?!_' Sasuke stepped out of the shadows to see that she was not flying at all, only appeared to be. Rather, she was gracefully falling, and flipping. '_Is that even physically possible?_'

Sasuke watched in complete surprise as the girl landed on her feet and went running after Suigetsu and Karin.

"Fuck," he muttered, he had been distracted when he should have shot at the girl. Now he would have to save those "asses" he called teammates.

- - - - -

Hinata quickly caught up with the redheaded female and silver haired boy. When she knew they were within her limits, she pushed her feet off the ground and propelled herself towards the boy.

However, moments before her body came in contact with the back of his head, the girl turned around, her eyes wide behind her glasses.

Hinata dropped to the ground as the boy turned around, she knew very well that at this speed and angle, a frontal blow to the boy's head would do much more than knock him out, it would kill him.

Karin, out of her daze, snarled at the girl on the ground. Her snarl, however, quickly changed to laughter when she saw, from the girls position, that she wasn't wearing any shoes.

"You're kidding right," she snorted, "what the hell happened to your shoes you dumb ass?"

"Don't need them," Hinata whispered, flipping her body over and pushing off the ground with her hands. With a snap and crack, Hinata's sock covered feet landed on the girl, one on her face, the other on her ribs.

The girl fell back with a thunk, her eyes behind her shattered glasses frantic. "Wh-who de-deh fuhgk are-are yough?!" she snarled, her nose and part of her mouth under Hinata's foot.

"It's better if you don't know," Hinata sneered, her unhappy smile the only feature visible on her face.

The scorned girl opened her mouth to protest, but Hinata was already jumping towards the boy.

The boy had stood shocked by the display, no one had ever done that before. The fact that a girl had done it shocked him further. '_A hot one too_,' he thought, a playful smirk coming to his face when Hinata decided to attack him.

The boy reached for his blades behind his back, only to find they weren't there. In fact, they were strewn behind him in the alleyway. Suigetsu turned around hastily, a curse on his lips, dodging Hinata's kicks at him as he did

For Hinata this was usually how it went. She first did her best to disarm the people who she was attacking until all they could do was rely on their own fighting skills. This usually ended in her knocking them out or them leaving quickly. However, she always started out easier, she didn't actually want to cause them permanent damage. She knew all too well what that was like.

Hinata swiped her legs at Suigetsu's ankles, hoping to make him off-balanced. Pushing her hands on the ground and swinging her legs up when he started to slip, Hinata leaped after Suigetsu, landing right atop him where he fell.

Suigetsu 'owff'ed all his air out of his lungs. Even if the girl felt almost weightless on his back now, she clearly knew how to move around so her weight distribution worked to her benefit.

When the girl straddled his waist and pressed her palms against his neck, he found himself smiling '_She's_ really _hot_,' he decided, trying to get a better glimpse of the girl in the skirt. Suigetsu started to laugh, this was both awkward and awesome at the same time for him. "Hey Angel," he said, trying to get the girls attention, "wanna go for a ride?"

Hinata's face flamed up, she hated fighting dudes because this tended to happen. The easiest way to take-out a bigger opponent, for her, was to pin them. However, at times like these, some creepers seemed to like it. '_FUCKING SICK-O!!!_' Hinata's head screamed.

She growled in her frustration, and before Suigetsu could insult her further, she crabbed him by his shirt collar and pulled him up with her. The blush across her face now fueled by anger instead of embarrassment, was hidden by the shadows when she pinned him against the closest wall.

Her fists shaking as they gripped his shirt, Hinata brought her face up to his. "What did you say ass-hole?!" she spat out, her face reddening by the second.

"Aww," Suigetsu cooed, "even cute when flustered. Did I bristle your feathers Angel? I can fix that-"

"Pig!" Hinata deemed him and silenced him with a punch to his jaw.

"Not bad Angel," he sneered, leaning forward towards Hinata, "but you'll have to do more than that to take me out."

Hinata slipped backward, trying to get away from the teenager she was trying to take out, and landed on Karin again. Causing the girl severe distress.

"Bitch!" Karin coughed up. Hinata replied by banging the girls head against the ground so she blacked-out. She didn't particularly want to deal with to irritants at once.

Hinata hopped back up so she could go after the boy again, only to find that she was the prey this time, not the other way around.

"Heh heh," Suigetsu chuckled in her ear, "Gotcha Angel." Hinata struggled against his grip, finding that he was using pure muscle to keep her locked in position. Each of his arms locked into place at her armpits, one wrapped around the back of her neck and gripping his other forearm.

Thinking of her current situation, she couldn't help but think she was in trouble. She needed to either distract him or squirm until she got enough leverage to release herself from his hold. She tried to think of all the ways to distract him, but all ended in her somehow feeding into his creepiness. "Damn."

"What's that Angel?"

"I said," Hinata began, bringing her arms up so that she could touch the back of her head, "SUCK IT!!!" she yelled, meshing her fingers together so that she was able to snap her arms back and nail him in the face.

"Ah F-!"

Hinata twisted out of his hold as he released her and tended to his bleeding nose. Spinning around to face the distracted Suigetsu, Hinata leaped into the air and double kicked him in the face.

"Take that," Hinata said when he fell to the ground unconscious, "you fuck-up."

Hinata started walking back towards the tagged wall, hoping to meet up with Kankuro and head back to the warehouse. About to leap towards the fire escape to her left, Hinata froze in position, hearing someone clapping behind her.

"That," a deep voice congratulated, "was quite a performance Hime."

Immediately Hinata's heartbeat accelerated, fear suddenly running through her veins like ice, piercing every part of her body. That voice sounded sickeningly similar to her father's. Just as condescending, cruel, and pissed, as her father's voice always was.

Her body rigged, nearly trembling, Hinata searched the alleyway behind her, searching for the source of the voice. Her eyes frantic and wide, landed on a figure shifting in the shadows. Her mouth moved to ask 'Who are you?' and 'What do you want?', only her voice made no such sound. All she could do was stare, every fear she's ever had in life and in her dreams reawakening in this living nightmare.

"You are the 'Hime' right?" the voice questioned, only this time it belonged to a body. The body of a teenage boy walking out of the shadows. Hinata let out a breathe she didn't know she was holding and relaxed her tense muscles. It was probably another one of _Hebi_'s members. Hinata turned around slowly, facing the teen.

"Aren't you?" the boy asked, his voice hinting irritation.

"Yes, I am," Hinata clarified, her eyes searching for some recognition on the boy. However, she got no sparks of memory. Not from his tousled and messy black hair or his endless pits of black for eyes. Nor did his dark attire of a black t-shirt, black jacket, and dark jeans. However, the white outline of wings on the back of his jacket, symbolizing him as the leader of _Hebi_, should have been a dead give-a-way as to who he was. All she noticed though, was the small outline of a feather on his neck, just beneath his ear.

"So you are part of _Shukaku_," the boy sneered, tilting his face to the side so his split bangs covered parts of his face.

"Well, duh," Hinata sighed, crossing her arms on her chest.

"Too bad."

'Huh?' Hinata wanted to ask, but the boy was already on her, grabbing both of her forearms in one of his hands and pinning her against the wall. Behind her guard, her eyes widened in utter fear, this boy wanted to kill her.

Fear practically wafting off her body, the boy smiled with his eyes hidden in shadow, making him seem eerie. For the second time that night Hinata froze. This brought back way too many bad memories, brought up way too many hidden scars. She was terrified. The fear years in the making released. She had finally found someone who scared her more than her father, and could also kill her, much, much easier.

"Heh," the boy laughed, bringing Hinata out of her reverie and right back to her despair, "so much for being an unstoppable weapon, huh, Hime."

Shaking, Hinata found herself looking away from the boys evil smile and to his eyes, finding ebony where she had expected ivory. Instantly her fear left and was replaced by simple irritation. Black was the one color she always trusted, found fitting for angels, the color she figured to be the best. The complete opposite of her father's white.

Hinata lashed out and slipped out of the boys grip, freed of her fear. "I don't know about unstoppable," Hinata remarked, moving into a comfortable position of attack. She shifted her legs against the gritty pavement and moved to leap at the boy, only to be halted in mid-air by the boy grabbing her shoulders and slamming her against the wall.

"I have no interest in fighting you at the moment," the boy clarified, moving his hands away so that one was near either side of her head. "Have you not noticed the time?" he asked, arching a brow, "It's nearly 3:00 AM, and seeing as this fight was not planned ahead of time and decided, we must end it about hear, that is, until next time."

The boy slid his hands down the wall and walked away; back down the alley.

The surprise of what just happened wavering, Hinata ran after him and made to swipe his legs out from under him.

Before she could react, he was on her. Grabbing her ribs roughly and smashing her against the wall. "Don't tempt me," he snarled, pressing his palms harder against her ribcage and abdomen.

Hinata let out a choking cough and tried to pull his hands off her while trying to kick at him.

Snarling with irritation, Sasuke, pushed her further up the wall so that the two were at eye level. "I'm not merciful, nor do I do people favors without expecting compensation," Sasuke said, his voice low and jaw locked, "seeing as you are already injured and that your friends are on the way, I'll only leave a mark."

Hinata, unable to move and finding it difficult to breathe, shut her eyes, too scared to watch. Waiting for him to take out a knife and leave a scar or break a bone, Hinata was surprised when all he did was grip her wrist.

Her eyes snapping open to watch what he was actually doing, Hinata saw that he was, in fact, leaving a bruise on her wrist. "What the hell?" Hinata muttered, not seeing the point in leaving a bruise.

"Hime, you seem to bruise very easily, especially on your arms. So, all I have to do is leave a mark on your left wrist that'll be there long enough that I'll be able to find you in day light," the boy set her down on the ground and started walking away, heading the opposite direction of where his followers lay.

"Besides, why would I injure something that I want to end up in my own gang instead of _Shukaku_? I could end up being the _Rogue_ with you on my side," he mumbled to himself as he entered the crowd of people just outside the alleyway.

Hinata's eyes followed him as he left, her body slumped against the wall. She couldn't find the will to follow him and attack again. She was officially drained of all energy. '_Besides, by now it should be 3:00 AM_,' Hinata convinced herself.

'_Where's Kankuro?_' she wondered absently, her eyes slowly closing, too tired to even worry about herself or the _Hebi_ members only a few feet away. The only thing she could find herself worrying about were the graffiti-ed words on the wall "_how to SAVE a Life_" and how did someone really go about saving someone else.

And as her surroundings faded to gray and then to black, as she waited for the rider on the Suzuki motorcycle that had jusr pulled into the alley to pick her up and take her home, she wondered, '_Does anyone really know how to save a life?_'

- - - - -

Author's Note:

So, originally I had planned to make this longer but I really felt that I should end this chapter here, I think it fits best. Anyway, thanks to Gerkyhen, Sayomi-hime, x-kags-x, jenniebennie, White Rose Of Oddity, hinata2233, itachisgurl93, for reviewing my story.

OK, I'm gonna answer some stuff real quick.

Sayomi-hime - To your question about meeting the gangs... well yes actually she'll meet all of them, even some I haven't mentioned yet so hehehe.

Jenniebennie – OK so, you suggested chaging it to GaaHina, well... I really like SasuHina and GaaHina is nice and all but I think I'm gonna stick with SasuHina. HOWEVER, I wasn't planning on GaaHina before, but I think I'll throw pieces in to make it interesting.

ALSO, for some reason, the first review I got... I was SOOO excited!!! I was really surprised I got any reviews and then I got update soon thingys(I always thought that would irritate the crap out of me but really I was soooo happy, it actually got me to type faster) ALSO, I had no clue how to use anything so when I got stuff sent to my e-mail I kind of freaked out.... Soooo it turned out someone had favorited my story and I immediately freaked and started typing more.

So, REVIEWS MAKE ME WAAAY HAPPIER THAN I THOUGHT THEY WOULD...... especially since I thought I wouldn't get any.....

Anyway, I'm working on chapter 3 and all, and it'll be up asap. Again, I apologize for the wait. Oh, and itachisgurl93, I laughed really hard when I saw your review cause I had been planning all day that I would update today....

I'll update again soon PINKY PROMISE.(i keep to my pinky promises)


	4. Chapter 3 PART ONE

Disclaimer: I do not own the Naruto characters.

**PART ONE**

Ch. 3 - Unsaid

B-BEEP

Hinata's eyes slowly opened to loud noise of her alarm clock.

'_Miya-hee_'

Blinking quickly, she tried to see what time it was, where she was, and why she hurt so bad... all over.

'_Miya-hoo_'

_5:36 AM _glowed brightly in red on her iHome stereo. Well that was good, school didn't start until 7:15 AM and Neji didn't leave until 6:50AM because he could drive to school. She could wait until 6:30 AM to get up and take her shower. She didn't even need that much time.

'_Miya-hu_'

Hinata blinked again. The clock didn't have the numbers _5:36_ on it. It had the numbers _6:46_ on it.

'_Miya-h-_'

"SHIT!"

The alarm clock landed on the floor with a thud and sparks, while Hinata ran out of her room and down the hall to the bathroom, turning the shower on as she peeled her clothes off, throwing them haphazardly around the room.

Hinata quickly got in the shower and put the water on full blast. She ruthlessly scrubbed herself, paying no mind to the bruises covering her abdomen or ribs. The pain was bearable so long as no soap got in a cut, something she learned a long time ago.

Hinata picked up some shampoo and dumped the open bottle in her hand. With a 'splursh', the entire contents of the bottle came out and covered the shower floor, only some landing in her hand. Today was going to be one of _those_ days.

Not missing a beat, Hinata grabbed Neji's shampoo. For being a dude, he really did choose great shampoo. Hinata plopped some in her hand and started harshly scrubbing her scalp. Feeling foam and knowing she didn't have that much hair as she used to, she put her head under the spray.

As the soap dripped from her head, down her neck and back, Hinata examined her wrist. She couldn't remember how exactly it had happened, she just knew that the color black for a bruise was new for her. '_Now_,' she thought ruefully, '_I've officially had every color on my body_'.

With a sigh, she decided to cover the bruise with a leather wrist band, a thick one. '_I can get away with that, right? It's not like that weird kid goes to my school, right? It's not like any of those guys go to my school, right?_'

However, Hinata knew the answer to all of those questions. Only one proved to be in her favor, and she wasn't sure the wrist band would work if someone asked about it, or told her to take it off. She could only get away with so much.

Feeling like she should just give up and not do anything gang related, Hinata turned the shower off. Sighing, she stepped out, grabbing her towel as she did. Wiping a hand across the fogged up mirror, Hinata assessed the damage last night had left on her.

Her back felt like someone had beaten her against a wall and then dragged her along pavement. Which had pretty much happened. Her eyes scanned across her back, searching for anything deeper than a paper cut or darker than a normal gray bruise. Finding none, she decided her back hurt mostly because it was simply sore.

Looking at her abdomen, Hinata noticed that the boy from _Hebi_ had left some serious bruising. '_The kid must have some issues_,' she thought, giggling lightly; then stopping immediately, finding it hurt more than it made her happy.

Irritated that a happy emotion actually caused pain, Hinata grazed her fingertips over her new bruises, searching for any that might be worse than usual. In her search, though, Hinata found that the bruise that Anko had fixed yesterday was nearly gone, a light gray splotch the only reminder.

A small smile spread across her face, the damage wasn't more than she could handle. In fact, it was well within her limits, with an extra bonus, it was highly likely that this wouldn't even bother her today.

The day was looking up for a moment. Then she remembered, she still had to put on her chest restraint. Everything suddenly turned back into a dark corner of a dungeon in a medieval castle. "Crap," Hinata muttered.

After getting dressed and covering up her chest, the bruise on her wrist, and the mark on her bicep, she left the bathroom for the kitchen, hoping to see Neji and convince him to give her a ride to school.

To her surprising luck, she caught Neji just as he was walking out the door.

"Hey Neji!" she called, grabbing her backpack and shoes, "Wait up for me you girly-man!"

That little comment always got him to stop. Hinata opened the front door to see Neji frozen on their sidewalk. Turning around quickly, she locked the door, and ran barefooted across their patch of grass.

"Hurry up Neji, times-a-wasting," she padded past Neji and to the street, where his Ford Fairmont sat, practically turning to rust where it waited.

His face, slowly fading from its bright red, now contorted from anger to pure irritation. "Hinata," he growled, unlocking the car and opening the driver side door, "I told you to _never_ call me that, ever."

"Yes I know," Hinata cooed from the passenger seat, her backpack on the floor, feet on the dashboard, and shoes in her hands, "but it never fails to get your attention when I need it most."

As Hinata laced up her bright orange Chuck Taylor's, the car became increasingly quite. Hinata could feel a lecture coming on.

"Hinata," Neji began, his voice strained.

"How did I know?" Hinata muttered to herself, sarcasm dripping from her words.

"Hinata, what time did you come home last night?" Neji asked as the car came to a stop at a red light. When Hinata didn't answer, and just put her feet back on top of dashboard, Neji went on. "I went in your room at 1:00 AM and-"

"You went in my room?" Hinata asked, her tone somewhere between terrified and angry.

"Well," Neji began when the light changed to green, "yes, and you weren't there. So where were you? And what were you doing?"

"What were you doing in my room? Besides, why were you up so late Neji?"

"You didn't answer my question," Neji remarked, his voice slightly impudent.

Hinata sighed and pulled her legs down from the dash, "You know where I was and what I was doing Neji. We've talked about this," Hinata defended.

Neji looked over to his cousin as he turned the vehicle, he could see the pain clearly on her face. She truly wanted him to accept this, no, she needed him to. The only problem seemed to be that he couldn't. He was unable to accept the fact that his _female_ cousin had joined a gang and now participated in their activities. Even after all she had been through, she somehow still wanted to fight.

"I was hoping to ask you about how school worked out for you yesterday, but seeing as you weren't there..." Neji's hesitant voice trailed off, not wanting to sound even remotely emotional.

"Oh, Neji," Hinata squealed, "you almost sounded like a caring older sibling."

"Hinata," Neji warned, tired of the girl's trying to derail the conversation, "you know I care-"

"I don't have an older sibling Neji, and I don't expect you to act like one," Hinata said, her words strained. Just by her mentioning of the word sibling brought back Hanabi. Hinata had hardly known her sister. The two never really seemed to have serious talks, besides the whole "Where do babies come from?" and girly issues conversations, they never really connected. Mainly because Hinata made sure Hanabi was always busy so she was hardly home, the other thing being that Hinata spent a lot of time in her room then, trying to heal herself up.

Maybe if she had taught her sister some moves she would've been okay. Maybe if Hinata had scheduled a sleep-over for her that evening, she would've been alive. Maybe if she'd taken her to practice, they could of stayed out all night. Maybe if she'd went home earlier it wouldn't of happened. Maybe if... Maybe if...

"-ata! I said we're here! Remember, you need to get out of the car before we get on school grounds so no one knows of your immediate relation to me." Neji scolded while saving Hinata from her dark thoughts.

"Yeah," Hinata mumbled, her mouth dry and eyes stinging, she always tried to keep Hanabi off her mind. It only ever caused her severe depression and some bad training hours.

Hinata stepped out of the car, her backpack dragging behind her.

"I'll see you later Hina," Neji said, pulling the car away from the curb and going on towards the school, a block and a half away.

"See ya Neji," Hinata whispered, following the other teenagers towards the school, thinking the whole time '_Goddammit_,' and not really sure why.

Pushing her way through the hallway towards her locker, trying to bash into as few people as possible, Hinata noticed that this school really was the way she had assumed it would be in the morning. Girls giggling and pointing to their crush, guys pulling pranks on each other or copying their friends homework, even some people zeroing in on their enemies. What she hadn't expected, was so many people making-out on the lockers.

At her last school, boyfriends and girlfriends did this... just not so _many_. Nor had anyone ever blocked her locker so that she couldn't get to it.

Two teenagers... were defiling her locker. She wasn't quite sure she would ever feel comfortable touching her locker, ever again.

However, right now, the clock's hands were at seven and one. Meaning, it happened to be 7:05 AM. In ten minutes, class would start. She needed to get to her class early. Yesterday she hadn't even gone to first hour.

Unlike her friends thought, Hinata wasn't very good at giving orders or making people do what she wanted them to do. In fact, outside _Shukaku_, no one really ever did exactly what she asked of them. It was usually either a loose interpretation, or not at all.

Noticing how no one ever really listened to her, Hinata saw the two on her locker get a little more serious, as in, your-clothes-are-starting-to-get-in-the-way. Horrified and unsure of what to do, Hinata simply said the first thing she could think of, or rather, screamed.

"HEY! IDIOTS MOVING TO SECOND BASE!"

Unfortunately for Hinata, they heard her. As did everyone else in the hallway.

Everyone was staring and utterly silent. Even the two atop her locker, who happened to be the pink-haired moron from yesterday and some blonde bimbo. Sakura, her face contorted in either shock or rage, Hinata wasn't sure, quickly changed to complete embarrassment. The blonde, however, was not amused, judging by the reddening of his face and the grinding of his teeth.

Hinata honestly couldn't believe her luck, of course Sakura had to be the one on her locker with some guy, who, from the scars on his face and the swirling fire tattoo on his forearm, was most likely in the group _Kyuubi_. In other words, she possibly just started an issue with _Kyuubi_, when she already had issues with _Hebi_ on her hands. Not to mention that the scars on his face are similar to that of the rumors of what the leader of _Kyuubi_ has on his face.

Suddenly, the silence changed back to the obnoxious never ending noise of a typical high school hallway. Everyone had gone back to their business, that is, except for Sakura and the 'Problem' still hooked to her.

"H-Hi," Sakura stuttered, staring at the somewhat distraught Hinata, "y-you're the new ki-kid who helped me o-out yesterday."

Hinata just nodded.

"I never caught your name."

"With good reason," Hinata mumbled to herself.

"What did you say?" Sakura asked, her cheeks growing steadily red as their conversation continued.

"Hm? Oh, I was just asking if you two could find the will to get _off_ of my locker, ya know, so I could actually _go_ to class," Hinata replied, glaring at the two for giving her problems so early in the morning.

"Oh," Sakura said, as if relieved, "oh," she repeated, this time slightly disappointed, then a third time, finally realizing she was irritating the crap out of her new crush. "Uh, uh, Naruto!" Sakura yelled, hitting the blonde, "Get off his locker!"

"Why?" the blonde pouted.

"Because, dammit, I said so!" Sakura hollered, obviously in no mood to argue, "Let's go, we'll both be late to our first period classes at this rate. We'll leave you alone now – er – See you in Science."

Now, if Hinata had actually continued listening, she would have heard the blonde laughing at Sakura for saying 'period' out loud. She was in shock, though, and had heard absolutely nothing after the word 'Naruto' came from Sakura's lips.

Feeling rather numb, Hinata proceeded to empty out her backpack and grab her Algebra 2 book and corresponding notebook. Still, she was in shock, unaware of everything around her. Including the fact that the late bell had rung three minutes ago.

She couldn't wrap her mind around the fact that she had just watched Sakura Haruno and Naruto Uzumaki suck face. Hinata was not positive that the boy 'Naruto', was Naruto Uzumaki, or at least she tried to persuade herself. It happened to be hard for her to forget her first love, especially what he looked like. With his tan skin, spiky blonde hair, and liquid blue eyes, full of pure happiness and delight at all times, Hinata was sure it couldn't be anybody _but_ Naruto Uzumaki. Besides, how many people went by the name 'Naruto' anyway? She was willing to bet not many.

Sighing and tightening the hold on her books, Hinata finally noticed the silence in the hallway. Anxious, she quickly looked about, scared people may be staring at her. Brushing away her acute paranoia, Hinata noticed no one else was in the hallway. Relieved Hinata continued walking...

"Son of a bitch..."

Kakashi Hatake was a man of few worries and more than enough patience. However, after coming to class ten minutes late, and still finding that his missing student from yesterday had yet to arrive, he was growing impatient, more so by the second. This being because the student had made it to all of his other classes, eventually. However, this new student, Hinata Hyuga, did not even stop by his class after missing it yesterday. This, surprisingly, irked him. All of his other students knew and appreciated the fact that he was always late, that is, except for this boy who seemed to not even remotely care about math at all.

He had taken into consideration that the new student may have shown up earlier and left, thinking the teacher was absent and simply left the room, not seeing the point in staying. This possibility was canceled after Mr. Hatake had asked the students if they had seen the new kid.

When the only response was "What new kid?", Mr. Hatake had made his decision, he finally had a student who tested his patience. This would be interesting.

Twelve minutes had passed since the late bell had rung, after twenty minutes, the boy would receive an absence, yet again. However, Mr. Hatake was determined to find out who this Hinata Hyuga was exactly. He knew from Ms. Yuuhi that Hinata was adopted by her and had also come with numerous problems. He had been called when Kurenai found out about Hinata's scars from fighting, mostly out of principle. Whenever anything happened to one of the staff members, they tended to tell everyone. Frankly, Kurenai had been hysterical and wasn't sure what to do so she had called everyone she could think of. Including the Math teacher.

Mr. Hatake wanted to meet this Hinata Hyuga, because, not only was he now irritated by the boy, he was thinking that he had some sort of potential to be an issue for the gangs. Very interesting indeed.

Hence the fact that he had forced the entire class to be silent so he could hear the approaching footsteps of Hinata Hyuga. At this point though, there wasn't a sound coming from the hall. Only five more minutes until 7:35 AM, the time limit for absences.

Giving up on the student, Mr. Hatake sighed and moved away from the door. "Well class," he began reluctantly, "It seems that yet again-"

"'Scuse me. Is this Mr. Hatake's class?"

Surprised, Mr. Hatake turned around quickly to find the source of the brooding voice, finding it belonged to a fairly tall, pale skinned boy, with dark hair covering most of his face.

"Yes," he paused, "It is".

"Good, because if this wasn't I was ready to skip-out on the whole day," Hinata walked in through the class, scanning over the columns of seats for an empty desk.

"Excuse me?" Mr. Hatake asked, quirking his visible eyebrow, the other side of his face completely hidden by his ridiculous gray hair, the rest of his face hidden by face mask, as if he was highly concerned about germs.

"Umm... I believe your the teacher so, can't you do that yourself?" Hinata asked haughtily, strolling down towards the aisle closest to the window.

The class was breathless, no one really ever talked back to Mr. Hatake. Mostly because no one saw the point in arguing with someone who would overall win. This boy, unlike everyone else, seemed to want to bother the one teacher not worth irritating.

"Are you the new student Hinata Hyuga?" Mr. Hatake ignored the teenager's remark.

Hinata plopped herself down in the fifth row down in the last column. Lightly tossing her books on her desk, Hinata looked up at her teacher, entirely disinterested in this topic. "Does this school really get that many new students? All the time? Or are all staff members compelled to ask questions everyone already knows the answer to?" Hinata grumbled, still in a bad mood from seeing Naruto and Sakura all over her locker.

"We prefer to ask questions so we can irritate as many students as possible in the short amount of time given to do so. Which, because of your little interruption, I only have thirty-two minutes and twenty-seven seconds left to do so."

Hinata stared up at the teacher and finally realized she still _wasn't_ supposed to be grabbing attention. '_Crap_...' was the only thing that came to mind. She couldn't just go silent or ask for forgiveness, everyone would either take her for an idiot or a wimp, both made easy targets. She couldn't continue the argument either though, that would attract far too much attention and most likely land her in trouble with numerous people. Plus, it could spring gossip. Simply, she had no easy way to do this, so she had to be careful with what words she chose and the tone she used with each words inflection.

Looking back to the front of the almost all beige room, Hinata's eyes fell back on the teacher, who, from the slight crinkle of his visible eye, was actually smiling at her. That certainly was unusual, normally the teacher's face would be red at this point...

"Hmm, well, this class seems to be remotely interesting. I might even stay awake in it. And seeing as there are twenty-seven other students in here, there are plenty of others kids to torture and ask questions of. I think another deserves a turn. Plus, seeing as I'm the new kid, I might even learn a name through you torturing _them_, though I doubt I'll remember any..."

Mr. Hatake started to smile wider. This student would definitely be someone to keep an eye on.

"Oh, I almost forgot. What page are we on?"

"Class, open your books to page fifty-six, today we'll be looking at factoring polynomials."

Everyone groaned in unison and did as they were told, leaving the little scene that had just played out forgotten, along with the new student who had starred in it.

Like the day before, class with the weird Jiraiya dude was plain creepy. After ten minutes into the class, she was positive she had thanked whoever she could that she wasn't dressed as a girl for this class. The man had a problem.

Too bad he couldn't be arrested for it...

After copying the notes scrawled on the board in purple, Hinata decided to zone out. Simply placing her elbow on her desk, her head in her up-turned palm, and the rest was up to whatever she wanted to imagine. Unfortunately, her imagination wasn't very active when it came to things that weren't meant for nightmares, so, she allowed herself to drift off to sleep.

As class went on, Jiraiya walked around the class, up and down the aisles, checking all of his students. More likely, he was searching for short skirts...

Passing through the third aisle and walking towards the front of the fourth aisle, in which Hinata sat as close to the back as possible for her; seeing as the girl who had talked to her yesterday was sitting in the very last seat, behind her.

Stopping in the second row, Jiraiya started to pester a girl whose skirt was hiking up where she sat. How very unfortunate for her.

Hinata, however, was completely unaware, as she was having another nightmare about Hanabi and her father. Although she never called out or thrashed about in her nightmares, she had been known to sweat with pure fear, or for her breathing pace to become irregular, as if she was panicking. In this nightmare she was fighting with her father, only this time it wasn't from her point of view, but Hanabi's.

Honestly, this terrified her the most. She didn't know how the entire ordeal happened between her sister and father. All she knew was that it involved practically every single thing in the kitchen. How that had happened, she didn't know, she could imagine though...

_She walked into the kitchen, her steps light and quick across the tiled floor. Hesitantly she walked towards the refrigerator, hoping to find something edible for some sort of dinner. Well, at least more edible than last nights soup, which had questionable objects in it, not to mention that they didn't seem to be cooked..._

_Hanabi wouldn't have said anything though, even if her sister had asked about the meal. She knew Hinata had worked very hard just to come up with the sad excuse. Hinata seemed to be inept-ed when it came to food, last night's abomination was partly because of the lack of good food and Hinata not having a clue of how to make anything..._

_Hanabi's hands flitted through the fridge, trying to grasp for any food–_

_SLAM_

_The fridge slammed shut as Hanabi jumped back. Her father had found her._

"_What, exactly, is it you think your doing?"_

_Hanabi didn't answer. What could she say?_

_Hiashi grabbed her by her neck, backing her onto the refrigerator's door. Hanabi gagged, spit flying from her mouth as she gasped for air._

_The scene suddenly changed. Shapes turning to mush, colors mixing together and swirling until all was black._

_Again the scene began, this time differently._

_Hiashi was standing in the kitchen, waiting._

_Hanabi entered through the screen door to the porch, walking in the kitchen without noticing Hiashi was standing there, waiting for her._

_In the blink of an eye, Hanabi saw Hiashi and he was stepping forward to attack her. His hands raised, one showing a knife–_

_The scene blurred and changed again, this time showing the two calmly sitting at the counter, neither saying a word._

_Hanabi's mouth moved as if she were speaking. Hiashi's face twisted, then he was yelling, only no sound was coming from his mouth. The two were now yelling at each other, both standing as if ready to attack._

_Hiashi swiped his arm out, aiming for Hanabi's side. Hanabi dived out of his reach and across the counter._

_Opening a drawer, Hanabi searched for some sort of weapon, something to defend herself._

_Hiashi jumped over the counter and Hanabi clasped onto whatever her hand could find. She spun around to face–_

_Everything blurred._

_Hanabi was sitting at the counter again. Her elbows were propped up on the marble while her head rested in her hands. From the heaving of her body, she seemed to be crying._

_Then, she didn't move except for tilting her head back, her eyes wide with horror._

_Hiashi was now in the room, looking down at Hanabi. His eyes just as Hinata had remembered. As white and pure as snow, the color of angel wings. Yet there he was, his eyes seething with deadly hate. He reached out his hand for Hanabi, snatching her neck._

_She didn't struggle, she did nothing. What could she do? Hiashi's eyes lit with excitement, he pushed Hanabi down._

_Time slowed as Hanabi fell, her eyes closing and hair splayed out around her._

_Her skull slapped against the tile, her blood spilling out onto the floor like water–_

_The scene blurred. Hinata was grateful, she wasn't sure if she could watch that longer._

_The events continued again and again. New scenes, each passing by more rapidly than the last._

K-BUM

_Hinata watched on as her sister was tormented just as she had been._

KK-BUM

_Over and over again._

K-BUM

Hinata jolted awake. '_It was just a dream, there was nothing I could have done_' she attempted to convince herself.

Trying to put away her emotions, Hinata slowly lifted up her head from her desk. She needed to check what was going on around her. If not to pay attention, to get her mind onto something else.

KK-BUM

Hinata nearly jumped put of her chair as she felt someone kick the bottom of her seat. '_What the HELL?_'

Wiping her head around, Hinata saw the girl from yesterday pointing towards the front of the class, her eyes widening and eyebrows raising.

Confused, Hinata looked back towards the front of her aisle. Immediately her eyes settled on their teacher, Mr. Jiraiya, strolling down the aisle leisurely, looking all around the class. Seeing this, Hinata now understood, the girl was trying to help her.

Sighing, Hinata settled back down in her seat. Trying to relax for the rest of the class she had to endure.

Having stayed awake for the rest of class, when the bell rang, Hinata stood and spun around. Quickly, she thanked the girl behind her for "the save", and left the class before the girl could reply.

Not wanting to be late to Chemistry, Hinata went to her locker and grabbed her notebook; she still didn't know where her book was.

Irritated, Hinata pushed past the edges of the crowd. Wanting to just get to her class and settle in her seat, ready for fifty-five minutes of sleep.

Pushing the door open roughly, Hinata noticed that the class was not as it was yesterday.

Everyone was sitting in their seats, those that were already there, facing forward, and completely silent.

'_That's plain creepy_.'

Her head down and freaked-out meter on high, Hinata went to the back of the class and sat down in the same chair as yesterday. Taking note that no one sat beside her Hinata's hope that Sakura would leave her alone today soared and–

"Hi new kid," the perky voice of Sakura Haruno whispered to Hinata.

Groaning inwardly, Hinata flicked her gaze to the chair beside her, which was no longer empty, to find Sakura sitting there, a smile bright on her face. '_That's plain unnatural_'.

"So, I never got your name. Do you think you could tell me what it is?"

Cringing at her cheery tone, Hinata contemplated the ups and downs of telling Sakura her name. As smart as Sakura had been when they were friends, she was pretty sure she wouldn't put the old "Hinata Hyuga" and new "Hinata Hyuga" together. Besides, Hinata was pretty positive that Sakura would not go away unless she told her her name. Well, she probably would not go away, but she would at least ease up. Hopefully.

"My name's Hinata."

"Oh really? I'm Sakura. Well, y-you... al-alre-ready kn-knew that... b-but..." Sakura floundered in her own words.

'_Wow_,' Hinata thought grinning on the inside, '_they all told me I had a speech problem..._'

"Never mind..." Sakura mumbled, attempting to keep what dignity she still had.

Ignoring the blob of pink, Hinata actually looked towards the front of the room and found why everyone was supposedly silent. On the board, written in red spray paint:

"The Great Snake has been replaced!"

Below the declaration was a Treble clef, the symbol of the _Sound_'s leader.

Hinata's muscles tensed, her teeth grinding on each other, her eyes alert and wide. Someone had set this up just before her class period, why else would it still be up on the board while they were still in the class. It was meant for someone in her Chemistry class, someone it would hold meaning for.

Trying to find the target, Hinata observed all present. Most seemed to be shocked that someone had spray painted the board of Kabuto-the-Creeper. They stared forward, their mouths slightly open and eyes wide. As if they wanted to ask "What the hell?"

Others appeared to understand its meaning. These, like Hinata, had tensed muscles and their eyes were glued to the board. They too didn't know why this was in their class, but they knew the meaning behind it... There were only three of these kids. One was a large boy, well over 200 pounds in weight, and hair that was a mess, going in every direction. Another was, surprisingly, from her own gang, Kiba. He was their tag expert, so he knew very well what this meant. The other was a boy with bright orange hair and a large build, with wide shoulders, and seemingly over six feet tall.

None of them were who it was meant for, at least, from what she cold tell. Of course, she couldn't see their faces, so she was unsure. However, she knew Kiba had no clue, because he hardly knew anything about the _Sound_. The large boy she had seen before with Naruto. She guessed he was in _Kyuubi_, therefore, not likely to know anything about the _Sound_ besides the fact that their leader had recently been taken-out.

She knew nothing of the other boy. He was new to gangs, she could tell by the fact that he had no scars, visible that is. Yet, he had no marks on him, that she could see. So, she didn't know what gang he belonged to.

When the door opened for another student, everyone gasped. The boy had a massive bruise on his jaw, roughly the size of a fist. More specifically, Hinata's fist. It was the boy with the white hair and blue eyes she had fought yesterday.

'_So... Creepy is in my Chem class... great..._'

Her eyes followed "Creepy" as he walked through the classroom. He sat down next to the orange haired boy, obviously grumbling to himself. Then he looked up and saw what the entire class had been staring at.

"SHIT!" the boy shouted and ran out of the classroom.

'_So that's who it was meant for_'.

The door still swinging from "Creepy" running through it, Ms. Shizune entered. From one glance it was obvious the poor girl was over-worked. Her hair was tousled and her arms were full of paperwork, books, and folders, which she could barely hold onto.

Feeling a large amount of sympathy for the secretary, Hinata watched as Ms. Shizune's face changed from distress to outraged horror at seeing the board. Obviously no one had yet told the office.

Clearing out her throat to compose herself, Ms. Shizune turned around to face the class.

"Does anyone know how this happened?"

Complete silence was her answer.

"Of course you don't," Ms. Shizune mumbled, irritated and flustered. Setting down her burden, she cleared her throat again, this time for attention, "Class, your teacher, Mr. Kabuto, I'm sorry to tell you, has quit his job and recently disappeared. A new teacher will be hired as soon as possible. For now, however, you shall have a babysitting teacher. This being because there are no lesson plans from this date forward in his log," pausing for breathe, Ms. Shizune looked about the class, "For the moment, I will be the replacement. Do as you please – "

The class was in an excited uproar before they even heard Ms. Shizune add, "just don't break anything".

'_Someone help me!_'

After enduring forty odd minutes of unending noise, Hinata wandered down the hall towards a new form of torture she was sure awaited her. Gym class.

Knowing Anko had meant what she said, Hinata had packed clothes for Gym the night before. She would have to change within the Boys' Locker room. With all the other boys...

This would be awkward.

Resenting the fact that she had ever decided to come to this school, Hinata pushed the door to the Locker room open, hoping the horrors within wouldn't kill her.

She needed to learn how to beg correctly, because apparently she did something wrong.

The smell of serious B.O. assaulted her nostrils. Then the door assaulted her back, reminding her just how painful this class would most likely be, and pushing her further into the locker room.

Willing her gag reflex to lay dormant, Hinata walked past rows of twelve lockers back to back, creating aisles with a bench between them.

Desperately ignoring all exposed flesh, Hinata moved past eight rows of lockers, her plastic bag of clothes in hand, and passed by the doorway entrance to the stalls and urinals. Continuing her sad walk, Hinata turned down an aisle, where she stopped in her tracks.

Having found a boy in just his boxers.

'_Oh dear..._'

Taking a deep breathe, Hinata walked down the aisle and towards her locker, two lockers away from the end, almost right beside the showers. That would most likely present problems.

Cringing as images ran wild in her minds eye, Hinata opened her hideously green locker. '_Is everything in this school green?_' Hinata joked to herself, needing to laugh at something.

Finding herself unable to do so, Hinata shoved her bag into her locker and sat down on the bench in the aisle, hoping that, if she sat down, some of the weight of her nervousness would roll off. It stayed firmly intact. Unable to think of a way around the situation she was in, boys all around her in various states of undress, she decided to simply embrace it. She was the new kid so, she had no friends, no one would randomly start talking to her while she was changing. Plus, no one really knew anything about her, so if they saw her bandages they would most likely come to their own conclusions as to why she had them.

Her body shaking in anticipation, Hinata grabbed at the clothes in her locker, her fingers grasping a pair of shorts. _'Damn...'_ Hinata cursed.

Her body noticeably trembling, she set the shorts down beside where she sat and slowly stood. Her hands at her belt, she pulled it through the loops and threw it in her locker with a clink. Unbuttoning and unzipping her jeans, Hinata quickly used her peripheral vision to see if the boy was still there.

Finding the aisle empty, Hinata quickly stripped off her pants and threw them in her locker, then snatching at her shorts and throwing them on over her boxers. Her breath quick and feeling lucky, Hinata tore off her hoodie and t-shirt

Trading the shirt for another, Hinata froze when she felt someone watching her. Automatically, adrenaline coursed through her veins, on a rabid path to all of her muscles. Ready to attack if needed, Hinata turned her head slowly to the right, her heart pounding and eyes dilating, to see a brunette boy staring at her.

"Dude..." the boy drawled, "what the HELL happened to you?"

Scared beyond all belief, Hinata's pulse stopped when she noticed shiny metal on the boys mouth. Squinting slightly, she saw a piercing on either side of the boy's bottom lip. She almost collapsed in relief. It was Kiba.

"Wha-What do you mean?" Hinata asked, still in slight shock. Feigning denial, she bent over for her discarded t-shirt, the team name 'Lakers' stretched across the yellow front.

However, in bending down, she revealed more of the scars stretched across her back, along with the new scratches and nicks, not to mention the bruises covering her midsection.

"I mean the marks _all_ over your body!" Kiba exclaimed, pointing accusingly at the lines on her back.

"I don't know what the hell you're talking about." Hinata denied, pulling her shirt over her head.

"Dude, you even have bandages around your chest, how the hell can that happen without an explanation?"

Hinata, finished dressing, shut her locker with a bang and noticed that Kiba was dragging attention towards their conversation. A sigh escaped her lips, she was going to have to be a bitch towards him for this.

"That," she paused, "is none of your business."

"But, what if you collapse or something when we're outside on the field, what the hell am I supposed to tell the teacher? Oh, sorry coach, I have no idea why your student collapsed, I can give you an idea though, he's all sorts of bruised and he could be internally bleeding but I don't know for sure but-"

"I was in a car accident." Hinata threw the boy a bone in hopes of shutting him up and ending his ramblings.

"That must've been one hell'uv an accident for you to banged up that badly..." Kiba trailed off, his piercings tilting downwards as he frowned.

"Yeah, it was." Hinata mumbled, trying to step away from her fellow _Shukaku_.

"Well, that sucks. What's your name, by the way? Oh, my name's Kiba Inuzuka, in case you were wondering."

"Mine's Hinata, and no, I wasn't wondering." Hinata said, leaving the Locker room for the gym, with many stares following her back.

Gym, she had been told, was the worst class for all students. Apparently, it was the most difficult class to pass. This, she figured, was a complete lie. Hinata could not have been more mistaken.

Bursting through the double doors of the Gym, Mr. Gai entered, already shouting orders for the students to run ten laps around the basketball court and then sit down in the stands. The teenagers had no will to even cringe, too many times had they done this routine. Hinata, however, had not.

_'Are you frickin' kidding me?'_

With a role of her eyes at her excessively eyebrow-ed and energetic teacher, Hinata began running the laps, cutting the corners and passing others by. Some students gave her odd looks, scrutinizing the new kid's actions but, really, she no longer cared what any of the kids thought of her.

Having finished her jog around the court at an even pace, Hinata ran up to the stands and sat down amongst the other students, only closer to the top. Her breathing was fairly even, although she had ran and passed by more than half the class. Finding that the students in her class were not as entertaining as she had hoped, Hinata started to search for her teachers.

She looked about the Gym, her eyes scanning the sides, hoping to find Mr. Gai, who was rather interesting or Anko, who she could probably go and bother. Finding only the odd teacher, Hinata slumped her shoulders, she was doomed to be bored and in pain in this class, awesome.

Staring at her bright orange shoes, Hinata began to trace the All-Stars design with her eyes. There was no way she could be more bored, at least, she thought so. _'Well,'_ she lamented, _'at least Kiba isn't he-'_

"So, why are you sitting at the tops of the bleachers, all by your lonesome?" Kiba smiled.

Pinching the skin between her thumb and forefinger to force herself into silence, Hinata thought, _'Oh __well, at least Sakura isn-'_

"Hey, new kid, why are you up here with pin-cushion?"

_'Goddamn'_

"I am not a pin-cushion," Kiba snarled, "I only have two piercings on my face and a few on my ears. That's it..." he trailed off, not mentioning that is was all he could afford at the moment.

"Whatever weirdo," the pink haired girl rolled eyes of moss-green. "Why don't you come and sit near the bottom?" Sakura smiled, her eyes twinkling at the possibilities.

"That's okay I think I'll just-"

"Everybody! Down here! NOW!" Mr. Gai yelled, leaving his place on the wall and running towards the bleachers, where all the students now sat.

Cursing in her head, Hinata reluctantly followed Sakura and Kiba towards the bottom of the bleachers and onto the floor, her shoes slapping against wood with every step.

"Now," Mr. Gai smiled, all the students now on the Gym floor, "pick your teams. We're playing dodge-ball."

_'Fudge biscuit.'_

"Make a line," Mr. Gai said, straightening out his arm, just in case the high school level students were unsure of what a line was.

Hinata followed the others and lined up beside Kiba; Sakura was lost somewhere along the way, '_YES!'_.

"Now," Mr. Gai said, his eyes moving up and down the line of teenagers, "would Naruto Uzumaki," he paused, "and Sasuke Uchiha step forward."

The blonde blue-eyed boy who had been on her locker earlier with Sakura stepped forward and turned around, just a ways to her right, a large smile on her face. _'So it was Naruto...'_ she thought grimly. Rolling back her shoulders and shutting her eyes in an effort to calm herself down, Hinata did not notice the second boy step forward, only two people to her left.

She opened her eyes to see a dark haired and eyed boy with pale skin. His hair was peculiar, the back sticking back as if windblown or desperately attempting to get away from the boy's head. Then she noticed the outline of a feather on his neck.

Her hand slapping her mouth, Hinata stifled a gasp. Not because the boy was rather attractive, as was the reason for the other girls. No, her reason was simple, both boys who stood affront her were from different gangs, rivals to be more specific. _Hebi_ and _Kyuubi_. Of this Hinata was positive, because the boy who had pinned her to a wall last night and marked her was standing in front of the class, staring right at her.

_'Great. Now what?'_ Hinata despaired, surely the boy would notice the strong similarity.

He did not, however, he simply noticed that Hinata was standing beside Kiba, completely unaffected by the fact that Kiba was in _Shukaku_. For some reason, this bothered Sasuke greatly, like a thorn in his side or a pinch at the back of his neck. This, however, he would need to put aside for later observation.

Mr. Gai strutted down the line like a spring rooster, walking between both Naruto and Sasuke. "So," Mr. Gai began, "who wants to pick first?"

"Well, I don-"

"I DO!" Naruto yelled, interrupting Sasuke. He was fired up, dodge-ball happened to be his favorite and best sport, at least he thought so, and here was the opportunity to beat _the_ Sasuke Uchiha at it.

"Okay," Mr. Gai declared, walking away from the line of students to give the two boys a better view of their possible teammates.

Bursting with excitement, Naruto quickly picked Sakura as his first choice, before she could even scream for Sasuke to pick her. Ready to curse at Naruto, Sakura went to his side, standing behind him and making faces.

Sasuke, obviously not wanting to play this game at the moment, or at least not have the responsibility of who was on his team, picked a boy with spiky orange hair to be on his team; Hinata was sure she had seen him in her Chemistry class.

Not missing a beat, Naruto started strutting up and down the line, as Mr. Gai had been, searching for his next team member. "Hmm," he murmured, tapping a finger to his cheek and getting up close to each student, "lets see here."

Naruto walked up and down the line, quickly passing by the students who backed away from him when he leaned closer. Then he came upon Hinata.

"How about you?" he mused, leaning in closer. Hinata kept her spot, staring off at the wall, still hoping to be saved by Anko.

"PICK HIM NARUTO!" Sakura yelled, bouncing where she stood.

Wincing at Sakura's high pitch, Hinata's eyes strayed and came upon Naruto's. Almost white mixed with pure water blue. "Fine," Naruto mumbled, "but only because you're wearing orange shoes.

Elated that she would not have to be on Sasuke's team, where he could possibly get a better look at her face, Hinata followed Naruto back to his position on the basketball court and stood beside a melting Sakura. To Sakura, Hinata appeared to be extremely cool and calm, how dreamy.

Folding her arms across her chest, Hinata watched as Sasuke and Naruto continued to pick their teams. However, she soon learned that playing dodge-ball had been optional. Some of the students simply walked away and up into the stands to watch the game, however, this was very few and mostly girls. Most likely, if she had gone with them, she would have paid for it later.

The teams chosen and the court ready, as Mr. Gai had been setting up the balls that would be dividing their sides, Hinata checked out her team and the opposing. They would be evenly matched, however, she had mixed feelings about being on the same team as Sakura, Kiba, and Naruto. As her eyes scanned the teams, she noticed that more gang members were on either side. Naruto's consisted of mainly _Kyuubi_ members while with Sasuke's team she was unable to find telltale signs.

Breathing in and out slowly, Hinata walked across the court and towards the opposite side of the Gym. Stopping by the far wall and turning around, Hinata faced her opponents and put all of her teammates into view. Seeing Naruto to her left and Sakura to her right with two other boys beside her and Kiba between Sakura and herself, she was ready. Across from her stood Sasuke, at the very front of his group, forming a 'V' symbol with him at the front.

Mr. Gai stood off to the right side of the court, from Hinata's point of view, a whistle in his hand. "When I tweet the whistle a third time you GO!" Mr. Gai yelled, clearly enthralled by the coming beatings.

"Okay!" Mr. Gai yelled, "Ready, SET!" Mr. Gai raised the whistle to his lips.

TWEET!

Hinata quickly scanned the court, trying to see who would run for a ball, foolishly to fall for getting hit almost instantly.

TWEET!

She could see the muscles in Naruto's back tense as he leaned forward, then how Sasuke responded with his own snarl and lean. Her own muscles tensed in anticipation, ready to pounce and weave.

TWE–

Mr. Gai was silenced as the double doors to the Gym slammed against the walls.

"GAI!" Anko yelled, walking into the room like a storm rolling into a harbor.

"Ye-yes?" Gai stuttered, intimidated by Anko's fury.

"What the HELL do you think you're doing starting dodge-ball?"

"We-well," Gai attempted but drowned in his words, unable to grasp a coherent thought.

Anko let out a frustrated sigh and snatched the whistle from the wounded man. Stepping out onto the middle of the court, Anko addressed all of the students. "Do to the fact that I am unhappy, we are changing the rules from your typical dodge-ball!" The students paled, their eyes weary, an angry Anko only foretold danger. "Line up against the walls children, we're changing this up a bit."

A look of horror on her face, Hinata quickly ran to the wall behind her, fearing whatever it was that Anko was planning.

"Now," Anko's voice rang through the Gymnasium, having seen all the students lined up against the white block walls, "See the person on the opposite wall from you?" Anko asked sadistically.

Hinata's head snapped up to find the person opposite herself. To her horror, there stood Sasuke Uchiha, his eyes smoldering coals and smirk broad.

"You are now partners. Join up."

Anko's voice echoed in Hinata's head, the word "partner" causing pain similar to that of a thunderstorm when having a migraine. She could feel bile rising in her throat. This would surely bring about something horrible for her and _Shukaku_. All she could do, face it head on.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Author's Note:

SOOOOOO... I know. I fudged up. You can rant and yell. I understand. HOWEVER! I have begun part two which will be shorter and easier. This piece I just wanted to get up, that is why I split it. If you do not like this, go vote on my profile. Also, REVIEW! I need to know what to improve on or if I should just delete this cause I am somewhat considering it... REVIEW! (it motivates me to update sooner...)

AND thank you to everyone who reviewed. You get cookies.

SPECIAL:

COMING NEXT HALF!

"What the HELL was that? Did you see that? Cause I saw that! I mean – HOLY FUCK!"

"What's that on your wrist...?'

"DODGE YOU FUCKIN' IDIOT!"

BONUS:

So... I've been basing my chapters on songs by the Fray and using their titles as the chapter name. Guess whats happening next time.

Unsaid

by the Fray

Not that you're the one

Not to say I'm right

Not to say today

And not to say a thing tonight

But suffice it to say

We're leaving things unsaid

We sing ourselves to sleep

Watching the day lie instead

And we are leaving things unsaid

And we are breathing deeper instead

We're both pretty sure

Neither one can tell

We seem difficult

What we got is hard as hell

A hundred thousand words could not quite explain

So I walk you to your car And we talk it out in the rain

I can sing myself to sleep

No more

Not that you're the one

Not to say I'm right

Not to say today

And not to say a thing tonight

TA-DA

REVIEW!


	5. Chapter 3 PART TWO

Disclaimer: I do not own the Naruto characters.

**PART TWO**

Ch. 3 - Unsaid (Continued)

Hinata gulped as discreetly as possible. She couldn't believe how horrible her luck was. The chance that she would be paired up with the bastard in charge of Hebi was ridiculously unlikely but, by the will of some deity with a sick sense of humor, she was stuck with him. Him and that twisted smirk on his face that suggested he knew far more than she would like for him to know.

Hinata tried to hold back a shudder. The kid was weird for one, was powerful for two, and was a bastard for three. Altogether, he was a whole mess of person she just did _not_ want to deal with. Ever.

Sighing, Hinata met the boy's gaze. "Do you know what we're supposed to be doing?" she asked stiffly, careful to make her voice deeper than normal.

"Hn."

'_Gee, thanks. You're so incredibly helpful._' Hinata thought, her lip curling ever so slightly in disgust. Opening her mouth to make a snarky remark at his aloof nature, Hinata thought better of it and bit her tongue. She really needed to keep a low profile around here. Fighting with Sasuke would be as far from low as possible.

Hinata resigned herself to feeling indignant and stood beside the fellow dark teen with her arms crossed.

"You're the new kid, right?"

Hinata nodded.

"Don't get in my way, or I'll make your life hell here. That's a promise."

Hinata stiffened. Then her blood burst with adrenaline. She swung around so she was facing him head on, ready to make a move on him that would cause pain with little force.

TWEET!

She froze and turned back around.

"Alright you maggots!" Anko barked out. "This is still dodge ball, so don't go thinking you're safe. If anything you're in greater danger," a slight smile snuck out onto her lips, quickly replaced with her usual snarl. "You and your partner are now your only allies. Everyone else is your enemy. The goal is to be the last pair on the court. You are, however, DQ'd for either you or your partner being hit, in any manner, by the ball. Any questions, morons?"

The gym was silent.

Then Naruto lifted his hand above his head.

Anko sighed irritably, "Uzumaki, what is it?"

"Umm...well, can we catch the ball though?"

"What kind of question is that?" Anko hissed, venom spilling out of her mouth. "I'll tell you what kind," she continued, snarling, "a dumb one." She looked around the room threateningly, daring anyone else to ask such a question. "Now, on the third tweet, the match begins. Remember, you're trying to eliminate everyone else, and to protect you partner, you're all you have."

TWEET!

Hinata glanced sidelong at Sasuke, noting how he was already sliding away to move towards the balls that would be sliding down the bleachers, courtesy of Mr. Gai.

TWEET!

Her fists clenched in resolution. She wouldn't get in Sasuke's way, but she wasn't going to help the bastard either.

TWEET!

They bolted away from each other in opposite directions.

x.x.x.x.x

Hinata, so far, had avoided two balls to the head, three blows to her stomach, five trip moves, and seven full-on assaults. Central City High School had some "crazy mother-fuckers" as she had put it so politely when one of the students nearly body slammed her into one of the cinder-blocked walls of the gym.

The "boy" took a jogging lap around the gym, trying to catch sight of her pissy partner. However, as usual, she had no such luck. Cursing under her breath, she took another lap, avoiding the occasional ball that whizzed by overhead.

Still, she had no sight of the stoic Sasuke.

Hinata huffed dejectedly. She was not going to be at fault for losing this game, and in order for that to workout, she needed to at least know where the _hell_ her partner was.

Again finding no Sasuke, Hinata made a move to double back and take the Gym in the opposite direction. Only to be stopped by a ball shooting right passed her face. She froze mid-step, the ball nearly touching her nose.

As the ball passed, Hinata turned her head with it, watching as it continued on its intended course. However, she felt a slight jolt of shock at the sight of its victim. The red-headed girl from _Hebi_ stood in its path, about to be nailed on her jaw.

"DODGE YOU FUCKIN' IDIOT!"

Hinata's head whipped around to the sudden outburst, her eyes landing on Naruto, his expression livid. Apparently the two were partners. However, Naruto's bit of "advice", as wise as it was, only served to further distract the _Hebi_ member, resulting in the ball to smash into her already bruised nose, as she had tried to see where the "advice" had come from.

Hinata tried very hard to contain her laughter. She had managed pretty well too, until she spluttered out a few giggles that were silenced by her hand slapping across her mouth.

The red head named Karin had been smashed in the nose and had fallen to the ground from the force of the ball, her head bouncing against the wooden floors of the basketball court. Quite possibly resulting in the best one-hit take-down Hinata had ever seen. Her eyes flickered to the direction the ball had come from and she found Sasuke standing on the bleachers, a legitimate smile on his face. For some reason this scared her to no end.

'_He takes pleasure in his members being _harmed', Hinata panicked, not knowing what kind of person did that. It was far too bizarre; simply unheard of, well, outside of _Sound_ that is. '_Then again_', Hinata mused, '_the girl is incredibly aggravating; he could just be getting back at her_. . .'

Hinata, attempting not to twitch, decided to take the shot as Sasuke following the assignment and having really good aim. Anko had said all hits counted and everyone but partners were enemies. He was just doing as he was told. . . Yeah. . .

She ran to the other side of the gym.

x.x.x.x.x

Hinata stood from her crouching position on the court. There were currently 21 other people, besides herself, on the court. Meaning there was her team and ten others left. She was going to have to actually start playing. That was not going to be fun.

Hinata stepped to the side as a ball came hurtling toward her.

"Son of a bitch! I've been aiming at that new kid for at least ten minutes and he's still not out!"

A smirk twitched at her lips. Maybe she would have a little fun with this.

Looking around Hinata's eye caught on a ball bouncing her way. Moving swiftly, she dropped down and snatched the ball up. Standing up straight, she searched for a possible victim, preferably an easy one.

Her eyes scanned half of the Gym, not finding a target that she felt compelled to hit, that didn't happen to be on her team, she decided to just toss it into the middle of the court, seeing as it was a useless weapon.

"Damn I really hate this game…" Hinata muttered as she turned around, and finding herself face to face with Sakura.

"Uuuuh," Hinata groaned with elegant awkwardness, "Hi there…"

An intensely red blush blossomed across Sakura's face at that. '_Craaaap_' was all Hinata could think.

"So, um, I'm gonna walk away now…so…" Hinata mumbled, trying to escape as quickly as possible from the pink haired bimbo.

Sakura, however, had other plans and simply snatched Hinata's arm, crying out - "Wait! Um! Uh! How're you d-"

Hinata saw it coming only seconds before the ball could hit and acted just as fast and out of sheer instinct.

'_Hanabi_!'

She moved before she could think to stop herself. She jumped into the air, spun an axis and leaped over Sakura. The ball only centimeters away, Hinata snatched Sakura up from behind and, using the momentum gained from her flip, spun the two of them horizontally to the left, leading them out of the balls path.

The two landed on the gyms floor with a thud, Hinata's body covering Sakura's as if she was trying to shield her from some sort of monster.

"Wha…Wha…How…"

Hinata heard Sakura say this but kept her eyes shut tightly. All she had seen, with that ball coming at Sakura, was a flash of her father – no Hiashi – attacking her sister from behind. She tried to keep the feeling for the need to hyperventilate down as she troublesomely thought that she definitely needed more sleep than she was currently getting.

She tried to take a deep breath so she could get herself up off the floor and pretend none of this ever happened, but, apparently her little display of compassion hadn't gone unnoticed.

"What the HELL was that? Did you see that? Cause I saw that! I mean – HOLY FUCK!"

Hinata peered out of the corner of her eye to see Kiba gesturing at her and jumping around as if he'd just won the Olympics.

"Fuck…" she whispered under her breath, her eyes squeezing shut once more.

"Um…Uh…You…Why did you save me?" Hinata heard Sakura whisper from under her and jumped to her feet immediately, having apparently forgotten that she'd landed on the pinkette.

This question and many others started to throw themselves at Hinata, such as "How the hell did you do that?" and "What do you think you're doing touching Sakura like that?"

All, however, went unnoticed, thanks to the ball that was hurtled at her from across the gym and hit her squarely in the back of the head.

"Got'em!" Someone yelled and Hinata heard a high-five occur in the background.

That was just a cherry to be thrown on top. Hinata let her head drop so her eyes were trained on her feet as the realization of what she'd just done hit her. She'd shown her abilities in school. This could ruin everything. This _would_ ruin everything. With the onslaught of despair setting in, she didn't seem to notice a certain calculating and dark gaze that was staring at her back.

The Uchiha boy had seen.

x.x.x.x.x

Hinata had seen Sasuke storm off in a huff after she had lost them the game. He left the gym and that was all she needed to know. He was out of her area, meaning he wasn't her problem and she just had to hide from him until this little deal blew over…

Then she remembered his threat.

"Son of a bitch," she hissed under her breath.

She knew she was definitely screwed at this point. All the kids in the gym had seen and were fascinated by what she'd done. Meaning in about fifteen minutes nearly the entire school would know what she'd done. Meaning by tonight, Gaara would have a nice, well thought out lecture for her to endure before they met up with the gang.

Hinata just wanted this day to be over with already so she could sleep it off and then run through her streets.

TWEET!

"Alright maggots!" Anko yelled out to her students, "That was a good fight! I expect the same dedication next time! Dismissed!"

All the kids bolted to their locker rooms, afraid that Anko might snap out another order to them if they lingered. Hinata, however, trudged behind them, her head down and steps hesitant.

"Son of a bitch," she muttered repeatedly, her thoughts only on what reprimands Gaara was going to spout out at her when he came by to pick her up tonight as she made her way into the locker room.

"Son of a bitch is right new kid, haha," someone said from behind Hinata, slapping her back.

"Excuse me?" Hinata snarled, turning around in front of her locker.

"Oh, haha," Kiba hesitated, "nothing new kid haha." Kiba leaned against the lockers next to her, seemingly settling himself in for a nice long chat.

'_Kiba…_' Hinata sighed. She wanted to talk to her friend but knew she had to keep their interactions to a minimum. If he realized that she was the _Hime_ he knew she would be royally screwed. Her cover would be completely blown because, she loved Kiba but, the boy wasn't exactly the best at keeping quiet in any way, shape, or form.

Kiba stared back at Hinata, clueless but confused none the less at her fridgid state. "Well," Kiba muttered awkwardly, rubbing the back of his head.

Pretending to be uninterested and mildly irritated by the boy's presence, no matter how much it really comforted her, Hinata went back to busying herself with changing at her locker.

"That was pretty cool what you did in there," Kiba continued, almost bashfully, "I don't think I've ever seen that sort of thing, haha."

Hinata nearly rolled her eyes at that, knowing very well that he had indeed seen that move thousands of times alone in their training sessions. Continuing to show her disinterest in communicating with the boy, she took her gym shirt off and checked her bindings and bruises. All seemed to be in order, which also seemed to shut Kiba up.

"Seriously man, how did you get all those marks?" Kiba asked again, his voiced hushed, as if his quieter tone meant he could keep any secret in the world.

"That is still none of your business."

"Oh, come on," Kiba whined, stretching out each 'O' as if he were five again.

"Maybe some other time," Hinata submitted, knowing that he also did not know that _Hime_ had these wounds and scars.

That seemed to be enough for the boy; because he smiled and nodded as he walked off to go change himself.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Hinata slid her t-shirt back on. Glancing around shadily, she made sure she was alone in her aisle before slipping her shorts off and returning to her jeans as hastily as possible.

"Well, well, _Hinata_."

'_Dammit,'_ Hinata cursed, _'I would end up nearly stuck with my pants around my ankles.'_

"I told you to stay out of my way. And what did you do? Went and put yourself in the line of fire for Sakura Haruno," Sasuke snarled. Hinata could nearly taste his anger in the air.

Keeping her head down and eyes averted, she tried to ignore the boy's clear invitation for a fight. She had already messed up enough for today in Gym; she didn't need to add fighting with Sasuke Uchiha to the list of what Gaara was going to yell at her for today.

"Look at me," Sasuke growled, moving to just inches away from Hinata. He wasn't really sure why, but this boy frustrated him to no end. He wasn't really sure what exactly caused him to feel this way, _'Probably his incompetence,'_ he mused, but he felt the need to slam him against the lockers. Hard.

"What do you want?" Hinata asked, only it was said more as a command.

"I want," Sasuke grunted as he slammed Hinata against her locker, "for you to understand the gravity of the situation."

Lights burst forth from behind Hinata's eyes. _'If this motherfucker gives me a concussion, I swear, when I'm Hime tonight, I will find him and beat his ass into next week,'_ Hinata's mind reeled. "Oh, I think I understand the situation much better than you believe," she hissed weakly, pushing down on his right arm that had her pinned.

"Oh, really?" Sasuke snarled, his eyes glinting at the boy's stupidity. "You really think you know what's going on here," Sasuke chuckled, "Seriously? Are you for real?"

Sasuke paused in his monologue to chuckle and observe the boy. There was clearly something wrong with him. Why else would he be standing his ground to the leader of _Hebi_ with no fear in his eyes, even though he was not tied to a gang?

Hinata squeezed her eyes shut, trying to remember if all her marks and wounds from their fight last night were covered, reviewing every move she'd made while changing. Her back was covered, her legs were covered, she had put that bracelet on earlier, all bases were covered. _'You have nothing to worry about. He doesn't have a clue, just breathe.'_

Hinata took a breath and opened her eyes again to see Sasuke measuring her up. All she could do was hope he wasn't as observant as all the rumors had said he was.

Sasuke sighed, released Hinata from her pinned position, but did not step back and give her space. "I find you interesting new kid. That is why I will let this slide for once." Sasuke made a move to walk away, when he saw relief spread across Hinata's face.

'_What do you have to hide?'_ Sasuke's eyes narrowed slightly with apprehension.

He eyed the boy quickly, trying to put his unsettled feeling to rest, and froze.

"What's that?" Sasuke asked, his voice restrained.

"What's what?" Hinata muttered disinterestedly, turning away from the boy to busy herself with her locker.

"What's that on your wrist?"

"Shit."

"What?"

"Nothing."

"That is not nothing," Sasuke tried to hold himself back but his voice was rising. He had given _Hime_ a mark **just like that** last night. He had done it in hopes of finding the girl. "Why the **fuck** do you have that on your wrist?"

Panic began to rise up in Hinata, she could feel it creeping up her esophagus in the form of vomit. Now would be a great time to come up with a fantastical lie. Right about now. Or now. NOW.

"I-I s-sprained my wrist the other day. What's it to you?" Hinata's face reddened slightly with shame at her stutter. It had taken her some time to get rid of that unfortunate tick, but it always seemed to pop back up when she was nervous or panicky, making it that much more inconvenient.

"Sure you did. That is such a load of –"

"Load of what, Uchiha?" male Gym teacher Gai 's booming voice came to Hinata's rescue.

"Nothing, sir," Sasuke took two steps back from Hinata, as if that would disassociate himself from the "boy". He seemed to further this by looking down and away from Hinata, as if he was never even talking to her.

'_So he's scared of teachers? What the hell?'_

"Then get going Uchiha, you don't need me talking to **him** about this," Gai spoke firmly, his eyes narrowing in on Sasuke as if he were a target at a shooting range.

"Yes, sir," Sasuke muttered, stalking out of the aisle and glaring back at Hinata after he'd past Gai. Hinata knew that look. She'd given people that look. That was a "I am going to beat the shit out of you later for this" look. Extremely unpleasant.

"You alright Hinata?" Gai asked, stepping away slightly.

"Yes, sir," Hinata mumbled, trying to catch her breath slightly, "Just feeling a little sick."

"Well you get changed and head to the nurses then," Gai left her with that bit of wisdom and walked off, leaving Hinata alone in the locker room. At least before the next class came in.

x.x.x.x.x

Two hours later Hinata was curled up into a ball on her bed.

Her head was throbbing and she was trying to keep the vomit that kept creeping up in her stomach. It was just her luck to end up with a migraine from the stress of today. She could be out of commission for tonight because of this.

Burping into her fist, Hinata turned over.

Today had been a right mess. She had only made it to Gym. Kurenai would not be pleased with her, nor would Gaara. He would surely know what had happened today and would lecture her, both on her misconduct and that she did not stay in school for the full day.

Her head throbbed for good measure, as if reminding her that she was forgetting one more large and impending problem.

Sasuke was suspicious. Already. She'd only been in school for two days and someone was already on her trail, and to make it more suspicious, she'd ended up having to leave school right after their little encounter.

"Fuck," she muttered, rubbing the heels of her hands on her eyelids. If he puts two and two together he will realize who she is. To make things worse, from what she's heard the Uchiha is no idiot. He knows what he's doing in just about everything he does, and he does all of it well. His being in a gang makes it that much more likely that he can easily identify people he's seen only one before. Her disguise will only just help her.

"He will know in a few days, if not less," Hinata whispered, a sob at the back of her throat. She did not need this. She could take pain from fights, from stress, even from her endless migraines. All of them together, however, was something she was not capable of.

"I don't know how much longer I can keep doing this…"

"Doing what Hina?" Neji mumbled, slipping into her room.

"Neji," she whispered, the slightest hint of pain in her voice.

"What is it Hinata?" Neji's voice firmed as he moved to her bed and took a seat on its edge.

Hinata could see true concern for her shinning in his eyes. She desperately wanted to tell him everything. About what she was doing to the city with _Shukaku_'s help, about her troubles with school, about the pain caused by her father, about everything.

"Neji I…" Hinata's voice trailed off. She could not tell Neji all she wished to tell him. That would only endanger him. He was set up to intern with the police department and planned to eventually become an agent in the FBI. If he knew any information about what she was doing, he would either have to tell his superiors or keep her secret from them. Meaning he would face betraying his family or losing his dream.

Hinata knew what Neji would choose. She knew, and that was good enough. At least she knew that Neji would support her and protect her and take care of her. She could not, however, take his dream away from him. He deserved that and so much more.

Before she even said a word, Neji knew she had made up her mind. "Scooch on over Hinata," Neji muttered, gently putting his hand on her back.

She scooted over and allowed Neji to curl up next to her on her bed, hugging her from her back. "I'm here for you Hinata. I will always be here for you, no matter what it is you have to say."

"Neji, I…some things are better left unsaid," Hinata mumbled, bringing her knees to her chest and closing her eyes.

A few tears slipped through her closed eyes. She was only two days into this mess and she already couldn't handle this pressure. With Neji there with her, though, she was able to have some greatly deserved rest.

x.x.x.x.x

Author's Note:

I AM SO SORRY. I have been so busy and I just have been completely unable to update this story. I had this ready and I figured I better put this up. I plan on updating more again. And I am sorry for the long wait and the shortness of this chapter. I PROMISE I WILL UPDATE AGAIN AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. Please stay with me! And thank you so much for all the reviews that said to keep updating! You all are the reason I finally put this up! So please continue to!

Review!


	6. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own the Naruto characters.

Ch. 4 – Look After You

Hinata slept until midnight, when Gaara normally came to pick her up, without nightmares of her father for the first time in a long, long time.

"Hinata," Gaara whispered as he swung through her window, landing on her floors with a soft thud, "Hinata are you there?"

Rolling off of her bed when she heard him call her name, Hinata scrambled about on her floor. "Gaara," she grumbled, groggy from all her sleep and slightly confused as to how he was already in her room. "What are you doing here already?" she said, yawning.

"It's midnight Hinata." Gaara stated matter-of-factly.

Hinata scanned her room, mildly confused, then her eyes landed on her clock. 12:03 AM it glowed. "Ah," she muttered, her voice soft and mind turning toward the fact that she really did not want to go out tonight.

"Come on," Gaara stepped forward, sticking his hand out, offering to help her get up.

Brushing the gesture off, Hinata pushed herself up off the ground and jumped to her feet. Look straight into Gaara's eyes, knowing he wouldn't be offended, he had expected that of her, but he was Gaara, meaning he still had to offer.

"So what's on the agenda for today Captain?" Hinata turned away from Gaara and went to look for some clothes to put on.

"Well," Gaara began, sitting himself down on her bed, turned away from Hinata, "Shukaku is going to patrol the borders again tonight."

Hinata "hmm-ed" in approval, Gaara's eyes glanced to the side, however, as if the turmoil of being certain and uncertain at the same time battled inside of him. "You and I, however," he mumbled slightly, his voice much lower than his previous statement, "will be observing from the warehouse."

"Excuse me?" Hinata turned around half-dressed, her jaw slack. "What? What what?"

Gaara stared straight ahead.

"No. You have **got** to be kidding me." Hinata almost snarled. '_What the hell was the point of getting dressed then?_' Hinata knew she needed to be changed so that she was no longer Hinata anymore but Hime, but still. She was tired, sore as hell, and she'd rather be sleeping in her bed than listening to everyone else be out checking their territory while her and Gaara sat up in the warehouse. Hell, she'd rather be feeling the pavement pound against her feet and the thrum of the city than sit around and listen to them all get to instead.

"Hinata." Gaara said with finality, the argument already finished in his voice.

She cringed slightly, collapsing slightly inwards. He knew then. That would make tonight exceptionally awkward and ending in a pointless one-sided argument about her situation. Not wanting that fight to come on before they arrived at the warehouse, she quickly finishing changing into her purple hoodie and denim shorts.

Sliding on her special socks and boots, Hinata hopped across her bed and twisted so she landed in front of Gaara.

"Well let's get to wasting the night then."

Rolling his eyes, Gaara followed Hinata out of her window and onto the street.

x.x.x.x.x

Hebi was in full tracker mode.

Sasuke had all his members following other gangs, with specific members in mind. Attaining intelligence was the plan, but Sasuke had one main thought in mind when he issued the order. '_We need to find Hime, as soon as possible, and neutralize her somehow._' The strange part was that Sasuke did not tell a single member of Hebi this. He felt like he needed to find her. As if it was necessary for him to do so. Yet, he felt like he didn't want Hebi tracking her, like they might fuck up and ruin any chance of getting her on their side. It was unnerving. He couldn't quite understand half of the feelings shocking through him, like anxiety, but he chalked that off to not completely understanding everything about himself to begin with.

To save himself further deliberation, Sasuke decided he just wanted to personally get Hime to join him. Likely because she would be a great asset, and it would look pretty badass of he could get an important and powerful member from another group to join his.

"_**Ouji! Ouji! Ouji!**_" Karin's mangled voice came through Sasuke's earpiece.

Exasperated, Sasuke snarled a "What?" at her after pressing down on the wire by his neck.

"_**I have very good news my Ouji! You'll be oh so proud of me!**_" Karin shouted, her voice cracking every few words.

Wincing slightly and becoming incredibly irritated, Sasuke growled a "Hn" into the headset for Karin to continue.

"_**Y-yes, Ouji!**_" she managed to stutter out. "_**I have located the Hime girl! She is with her leader I believe!**_"

Sasuke was momentarily stunned, he'd found her already, so early into the night, and only a day later. Maybe he could talk to her and could convince her to join him. He could promise her anything in order to get her to join them, he only thought for a second about whether or not he would keep that promise, if issued. Maybe he could corner her and, through brute force, convince her to –

"_**OUJI! Why aren't you answering me?!**_" the high pitched whine that was Karin interrupted his train of thought.

Trying to control his emotions and keep himself from crushing the headset, Sasuke took a quick breath and began to hatch his plans of finding and taking Hime.

"Karin. Where is she."

x.x.x.x.x

Hinata and Gaara had sped off to the warehouse on his bike, with Hinata's cheek buried into his back as she tried to catch just a little more sleep, or at least stare at everything they were passing by, and try her best not to register it. The duo had made it to the warehouse in a matter of minutes, record time, with no snags along the way. Normally, Hinata probably would have noticed this and found it disconcerting. Despite her noticing, however, she just let it slide, waiting for some sort of ambush or sudden upspring of a certain leader she would prefer to forget the name of.

Skidding to a stop on the gravel outside the warehouse, Gaara and Hinata quickly hopped off at their stop and swiftly walked in.

Shifting through their secret entrance, Hinata and Gaara cleared the way into their hideout.

Upon entering, Hinata immediately headed towards the beat up black couch and waited for Gaara to join her. When he continued passed her and towards the back room, Hinata was pissed. Irrationally and incredibly pissed. There were sectors she could be checking on and moves she could be practicing, but no, Gaara had to exercise his power over her as leader and make it so she couldn't go out tonight.

With anyone else, that wouldn't mean a thing. When Gaara said you weren't going out tonight, he meant that on pain of fighting him instead and ending up in the hospital for stitches or worse.

After five minutes of sitting alone on the couch and listening to the quiet hum of the radio chirping with the voices of her friends, Hinata had had enough. There was shit to be done.

Ripping her glasses off and tossing them to the side, Hinata quickly made her way to the back room, her expression livid and eyes practically glowing with anger.

"Gaara!" she snarled as she yanked the metal door open that separated her from Gaara's room and stormed in as if she was a force of nature to be reckoned with.

And all that animosity deflated suddenly with just one look at him.

Gaara was sitting on his bed with his face in his hands and body rigid. He looked like a caged animal that was ready to strike, yet full of remorse.

For a moment she absorbed the fact that he had a burgundy bed cover, pillows, and sheets, all seemingly made of pure silk, and a gray walled room completely free of any sort of clutter or dirty clothing. The room had few necessities besides the bed. A closet with a sliding mirror door, an end table beside his bed that held a black lamp and a few books, and two black dressers was all that adorned the simple room. The cement floor was bare except for the several different color rugs that covered it in various areas, obviously for comfort when the winters came with their harsh cold.

Setting all this information aside to observe later, Hinata silently walked toward her leader.

Confused, Hinata folded herself up and sat down on his immaculate floor in front of him, her lavender eyes trying to glance up into his face as she leaned in closer. Hesitantly moving her hand to place it on his knee, Hinata began to call out to him, but was rejected by an indignant and flat "Don't." It almost sounded pleading.

"Wh-" Hinata began but was cut off once more.

"Just don't Hinata. I need to think, and I can't do that with you here right now."

Hurt and confused by the simple statement and the tone he used, Hinata moved quickly and practically leaped out of the room, the door slamming behind her.

.x.x.x.x.x.

Karin had followed Hime until Sasuke had caught up to her and taken over. Once he started following Hime on his own, he was able to confirm that it was indeed the leader of _Shukaku_ that was with her. He couldn't quite recall his name, which was odd for Sasuke. He didn't do stupid and simple things like forget. That was for lesser people.

He was sure, however, that the boy had two other siblings in the group and that their last name was Sibaku. That was good enough. He could find them all with a last name if he wanted to. A first name was useless unless he was using actual people in order to find them.

As Sasuke followed the two _Shikaku_, he realized something he found to be awkward and embarrassing, they were close. Very close. From the way they behaved, it was clear they were good friends. This would undoubtedly present a problem when he attempted to persuade Hime to join _Hebi._ He'd have to give her a reason to join, besides the obvious reasons of being under his command and with a powerful group. He somewhat doubted any of those things would matter to her.

That bothered him. That bothered him a lot, actually. More than he was willing to acknowledge.

He was going to need this girl in order to rule this city. He was sure of it. The way she acted, just from meeting her in that alleyway and the stories he had heard, made her an invaluable ally. Well, if he could make her be his ally, that is.

From the stories he had heard, this girl was a legend in the making. He could use a legend. A legend would make him stronger. A legend would help make him a god. Safe and untouchable. That was something he desired without a doubt. And if he was being honest, he too was a legend in the making. He knew it. He saw the way people looked at him and heard the whispers. People feared him. People acted the same way towards Hime. Only she was respected too. Fear could only take a leader so far. He needed the respect of his people too, if he were to stay on top for a long reign.

When Hime and the Sibaku boy stopped at a rather run down and shady warehouse, Sasuke stopped a ways further back than he normally would have. He had a feeling this was their home base, and if it was, they likely had it highly protected, and he wasn't looking for a fight tonight. No. He was just observing tonight.

Sighing, Sasuke watched as Hime and Sibaku entered the warehouse. Seeing them disappear into the building, he decided it was best to settle in. They hadn't appeared to be moving quickly at all, suggesting they were staying here tonight.

Which was, once he got around to thinking about it after contacting all of his trackers, was really odd. Especially since the two were the top rankings of _Shukaku_. _'Perhaps they're looking for some…alone time or something.'_

The thought brought a blush to Sasuke's face and a quiver to his stomach. Partly because if that were the case, then he felt incredibly creepy right now and it would be much harder to persuade her than he had predicted. After a few more seconds though, he found himself enraged. The girl he had fought last night was one of those girls? Was that even possible? Weren't females usually one or the other in gangs? Never both. Then, which was she?

'_What if she was another Sakura?'_

At that consideration he felt physically ill. No. There was no way. The girl he had seen the other night was not one of those girls. He was sure of it. Her resolve was too strong. _'She wouldn't stand for hiding behind somebody else to protect her.'_

Rationalizing his train of thought by comparing her to all the other females he knew were in gangs, Sasuke realized she was probably the furthest from being that kind of member he had ever seen in his entire time in being in this kind of life. There was no way she was.

Then that left him with more questions. _'Why are they in there and not out here?'_

.x.x.x.x.x.

Hinata found herself laying in the rafters in the warehouse, nearly four stories off the ground. If she fell she would free fall until the bottom and likely die. This didn't even slightly bother her.

She stared idly up at the ceiling, trying to piece together everything it was that she was doing and why she had done it or planned to. Some she had no reason for, but most lead her back to her family and all the problems that had happened with her father. She wanted everyone that meant something to her to be safe, no matter what it cost her. 'Now,' she supposed, 'I'm beginning to find out that cost.'

All the way up here she could still hear the radio chatter from below. She felt like she should focus on her friends' voices, but at the same time she found herself wondering how old the beam she was on was, with its flaking paint and rusted rivets and lines.

Hinata sighed and pulled her hand away from picking precariously at the paint. She needed to be more careful. Not just with the gang but with what she did at school. Only Anko really knew about what she was doing, Tsunade was too drunk to care, and Asuma had been convinced by Kurenai that this was my way of processing all that had happened to me. Like being a boy empowered me and made me feel safe. In a way it almost did, I felt safe, but that was only because of the fact that when I was like this I wasn't me.

Sometimes it feels like I'm not me for days… Hinata mulled over this thought and clawed at the complexities of it. Was it because she wasn't her when she lied? Was it because she didn't like what she was becoming? Was it because she still wasn't used to where she was and the fact that she would never really see her sister again?

The last question bit at her insides and left her contemplating just slipping off the beam and pretending it was an accident if she lived.

"Hinata."

For a moment she thought about pretending she just hadn't heard him, but she knew she couldn't do that to him, not with all he'd done for her.

"Yes?"

"Come down here, please."

Hinata froze, then hesitantly nodded her consent and made her way back down to the floor of the warehouse. Gaara rarely said "please". He never really had the need for it. Hearing him say so made it feel…strange. Almost like he was pleading with her.

Hinata shook the thought off as she landed on the cement floor.

"What is it, Gaara?"

"Hinata…" Gaara paused, Hinata took a breath to prepare herself, and waited.

Gaara's eyes narrowed.

"Hinata. You can't keep pulling the shit that you pulled today if you want to remain safe and in this group. Hell, I think Kiba might have even noticed that the new kid is similar to you. You know that means anyone could be close to putting two and two together."

Gaara sighed.

"You're my first and best friend Hinata. I don't want anything happening to you. I don't think I could bare it."

With a defeated sort of look on his face, Gaara moved to go back to his room, but Hinata jumped in front of him and blocked his movement.

"Gaara…I…I…" Hinata wasn't at all sure what to say. Gaara had never spoken of his feelings so openly like he had just now. It was shocking all in itself. The look on his face though, that made it ten times worse.

"I'll be more careful." Hinata promised.

The two nodded to each other, knowing that her promise was as good as a written contract and that she really would try her best to refrain from revealing herself, as long as was possible.

In the silence that ensued the two stared at each other, both contemplating whether or not they had anything to add, and whether or not it was alright to show some sort of affection.

The decision took longer than it probably should have, but Hinata finally decided she might as well at least hug Gaara. He was family to her, and she was to him, she was sure of that. So with her head made up, Hinata stepped forward, her arms open to –

"Hey Gaara, Hime. I think we're being watched."

The static voice of Kiba ruined the moment and Hinata put her arms back down, deciding it was probably for the best.

"I'll go check it out," she declared, snatching her shoes and eye gear, "I'll be back in a few." And she disappeared through the exit.

Gaara was glad she hadn't seen the disappointment he had let slip across his face. He didn't need more problems than the ones he already had.

.x.x.x.x.x.

Seeing that there had been no movement since the two went into the warehouse, Sasuke started to make plans to leave and eventually come back. This was taking too long and he had several other things to do. Besides, he had a feeling that Hime and the Sibaku boy would not be coming back anytime soon.

What that meant for them, he wasn't sure and was busy trying not to think about it when Hime came barreling out of the warehouse.

"Well, well, well. What have we here?"

Sasuke watched as Hime ran across the street and towards the nearest building and began a quick ascent to the roof. Within seconds she was leaping across rooftops, heading west.

Seeing that she was obviously traveling by herself and moving quickly, Sasuke ran to his black motor bike, started her up, and continued following Hime.

.x.x.x.x.x.

Hinata skidded across a gravel roof top, Kiba had to be nearby, this was his sector for the night and he knew better than to stray from his sector. Gaara was never pleased when that happened without being prompted to do so by Gaara himself or something going down in another sector that needed back-up.

Hinata leaned over the side of the roof and looked into the alley. There wasn't anyone down there at the moment, so Kiba would likely be showing up any minute. Jeez, he wasn't the best at being on time.

Waiting for him to show up, Hinata tried to listen for Kiba and his dog, and ended up only hearing the cars passing by. With a sigh she sat down on the ledge and leaned her head into her hand. There wasn't much she could do besides observe and wait. And wait. And wait…

"Did you hear me Shukaku?"

Hinata's head whipped towards the entrance to the alley. There she saw Kiba cornered by two other people. It didn't matter who or what gang. In that moment, she saw that one of her best friends was cornered.

_Protect. Must protect._ The feeling was overwhelming.

Hinata ran along the edge of the roof top and leaped over the side as if she was hoping from the sidewalk to the street instead of from a roof to four stories below.

Landing on the balls of her feet, she had hardly made any noise. _Good._ Taking swift steps and keeping to the shadows along the walls of the alleyway, Hinata was upon them in moments. They didn't even know what they had just gotten themselves into.

"Is there a problem here Kiba?" Hinata strolled up from behind Kiba, her voice and movements completely calm and relaxed.

"You know what Hime, I was just thinking there might be a fucking problem?" Kiba deadpanned, his eyes never leaving the two in front of him. Hinata recognized them as members of _Kyuubi._ That was unexpected. She had thought it would have been _Hebi_ if it was going to be anyone. Yet, she supposed_ Hebi_ was still relatively small after their apparent break from _Sound_ or so she'd heard.

_Well this is really fucking inconvenient._

Hinata's face scrunched in discomfort and disgust. This was a challenge, this needed to be dealt with immediately if they were going to remain a gang to be feared in the future. All it took was one display of weakness, and they would most assuredly fall.

For a moment her mind flashed back to when Sasuke had had her pinned in that alley only just the other night. With a step forward she rid herself of those thoughts. This was not the time or place.

Kiba and Hinata, as well as their adversaries, were silent, most definitely assessing each other and how exactly to handle this.

They could silence this now and just kill the _Kyuubi_'s, but that would be seen as weak and unfair. Gaara would also be irritated by it, and seeing as Hinata was trying to prove she was responsible to get back in his good graces, that would not be the optimal choice.

There was the possibility of detaining them, with a nice ass-kicking, and then making their leader come into their territory to come and retrieve them. That, although preferred by both Kiba and Hinata, was not optimal either. Their leader would see it as "trying to prove who's superior" sort of deal.

They could turn and ignore this. That was not even an option.

Hinata sighed and turned her attention to Kiba. His body was tense and ready to attack, apparently they had been dogging him. _How …unwise._ She knew if they were to fight, Kiba wouldn't hold back, and then they would have a mess on their hands. Maybe if he was a bit calmer they could settle it that way, but they obviously hit a nerve.

Her decision made, Hinata faced the _Kyuubi_'s again. For a moment they seemed familiar, they most likely went to her school, but she felt like it was more than that.

She brushed the thought off.

"I propose a Ket of 3 V. 3." Hinata's voice was strong and confident, even when the two boys in front of her visibly flinched.

"Excuse me? What?" the fatter of the two voiced, his expression confused. Apparently this hadn't been expected. The boy beside him simply sighed.

"You heard her just fine, ya fat arse."

The boy nearly leaped at Kiba, but the gangly boy beside him snatched him by his collar before he could do anything else. The boy pulled him back until they were beside each other once more and muttered to him until the boy finally calmed down enough to shake him off. The thin boy sighed and lazily looked back to Hinata, wanting clarification.

"I'm sure we're all aware that only a Kage can declare those sorts of things." The boy waited for acknowledgement, but when he received none he continued on with his little explanation. "If I'm wrong in saying this correct me, but I was under the impression that the Kage of _Shukaku_ was a male." Kiba and Hinata just continued to stare. "Also, we believed that Gaara was in fact your Kage."

Kiba and Hinata looked to each other, Kiba trying desperately not to start smirking and Hinata literally biting back her laughter as her teeth sank into her bottom lip.

"You're not Gaara," the boy added, trying to clarify.

_Ya don't say._

Deciding to spare the boy any further confusion, Hinata elaborated.

"In the group _Shukaku_, we are not lead by a Kage," she saw the chubbier boy's eyes widened, the thinner of the two's eyes narrowed, apparently realizing where this was going. "We are led by two equals, one being Gaara," a smirk worked its way across Hinata's face. "I am the other, although I do not participate as one nor claim that status in any situations besides ceremonial reasons."

The _Kyuubi_ boys' faces fell.

"In short, I am a Kage, so there's no need to worry."

Hinata swatted at Kiba.

"Anyway, I prefer not to get involved in these sort of things, so have your leader, whatever his name is, contact Gaara, and we'll arrange our little match." Hinata finished her little speech and turned her back on the boys, no longer considering them a threat.

"Come along Kiba, it's nearly three."

.x.x.x.x.x.

Sasuke had watched the entire thing. Hime had issued a proper straight up challenge, obviously trying to make _Shukaku_ appear strong and law abiding. _Heh, how ironic._ Sasuke chuckled at the thought.

If this were to happen though, other gangs could throw their challenge into the Ket. Then it could be escalated into a Melee or a Hast. Meaning everyone could fight each other at the same time, and whoever was left standing was the winner, or there could be a pair off of each until there was only one team left, or one person.

To be honest, Sasuke preferred Melee, with everyone fighting each other, it was easy for him to wait and then kill of the more prominent opponents. However, it would not be mutually beneficial for all involved, seeing as they usually ended then well over a few dead. A Hast, however, that would work.

Not only that, but in any of these took place, a wager was required, with all the spoils to the victor. Anything could be wagered, money, territory, and, to Sasuke's delight, people.

"Oh, this is perfect." Sasuke's smirk widened.

With that he stopped following Hime. He had what he needed. Besides, there were plans to put into action.

.x.x.x.x.x.

Hinata's mind scrambled. She probably should not have done that without Gaara's consent, they were pretty good about that whole equal deal when things like this happened, but that was mostly because they agreed that big decisions had to be made by more than one person. Most of the time, truthfully, Hinata wasn't really even involved in anything that would make her the co-leader of the group. She preferred not to be. It was half in place so that Gaara could have her opinion without seeming weak and so that if anything ever happened to either of them, there wouldn't be too great of a problem.

Gaara was the true leader here. She didn't really want any part in being a Kage. That kind of power wasn't something she wanted.

All she wanted was to take care of those who mattered around her and then some. She wanted to save people from themselves, maybe even help clean this city up. She couldn't help it. She just had the strong inclination to help people.

Gaara was going to be so pissed though…

Hinata smacked herself in the forehead.

"By the way Hime," Kiba began, helping her escape from her thoughts, "thanks for coming out of nowhere and backing me up in that alley." Kiba stopped in his tracks, they had been heading back to base by foot, were nearly there too, but he stood still in the middle of an abandon road to tell her this.

Hinata smiled and placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "No problem Kiba. You're a brother to me. Everyone in _Shukaku_ is like family to me, closer to the real thing than my biological family ever was. I'll always look after you and everyone in _Shukaku_."

With that truth said and done, Hinata and Kiba continued on to their base; Hinata contemplating how exactly to explain this to Gaara without him freaking out, if he didn't already know, and Kiba wondering who exactly Hime really was.

.x.x.x.x.x.

**Author's Note:**

Alright guys! Just want to say THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE REVIEWS! They really motivate me! And all the questions you guys have really let me know what you all want to hear from this story and how well I am explaining everything. Luckily, all of your questions will be answered eventually, if not soon or even in this chapter.

Thank you so much for sticking with me! I hope you enjoy the chapter!

Any questions, concerns, or suggestions, REVIEW.


End file.
